The neural mechanisms for working memory based biased attention to food
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1
Oxford Brookes University, Psychology, UK
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2
University of Oxford, Experimental Psychology, UK
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3
University of Birmingham, Psychology, UK
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4
VU University , Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, The Netherlands
We investigated the neural mechanisms involved in bias for food stimuli in our visual environment using event related lateralized (ERL) components. The participants were presented with a cue (food or non-food item) to either identify or hold in working memory. Subsequently, they had to search for a target in a 2-item display where target and distractor stimuli were each flanked by a picture of a food or a non-food item. The temporal dynamics of electrophysiological measures of attention processing (the N1pc and N2pc) showed that orienting of attention towards food stimuli was associated with two different mechanisms: an early stage of attentional suppression followed by a later stage of attentional orientation towards food stimuli. In contrast, non-food cues were associated only with guidance of attention to or away from cued stimuli on valid and invalid trials. The results of our study demonstrate that food items are of special motivational significance and modulate the early orienting of attention, including an initial suppressive response to food items.
Keywords:
Attention,
EEG,
working memory,
N2pc,
ERL
Conference:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Attention
Citation:
Kumar
S,
Higgs
S,
Rutters
F and
Humphreys
G
(2015). The neural mechanisms for working memory based biased attention to food.
Conference Abstract:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00215
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Received:
19 Feb 2015;
Published Online:
24 Apr 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Sanjay Kumar, Oxford Brookes University, Psychology, Oxford, UK, skumar@brookes.ac.uk