Neural correlates of attentional capture by stimuli previously associated with social reward

ABSTRACT

Our attention is strongly influenced by reward learning. Stimuli previously associated with monetary reward have been shown to automatically capture attention in both behavioral and neurophysiological studies. Stimuli previously associated with positive social feedback similarly capture attention; however, it is unknown whether such social facilitation of attention relies on similar or dissociable neural systems. Here, we used the value-driven attentional capture paradigm in an fMRI study to identify the neural correlates of attention to stimuli previously associated with social reward. The results reveal learning-dependent priority signals in the contralateral visual cortex, posterior parietal cortex, and caudate tail, similar to studies using monetary reward. An additional priority signal was consistently evident in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG). Our findings support the notion of a common neural mechanism for directing attention on the basis of selection history that generalizes across different types of reward.

KEYWORDS:

• Selective attention
• value-driven attention
• social reward
• fMRI

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a start-up package from Texas A&M University to BAA and grants from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation [NARSAD 26008] and NIH [R01-DA046410] to BAA.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

The supplementary data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation [NARSAD Young Investigator Grant 26008];National Institute on Drug Abuse [R01-DA046410].