Invalid Trials Are Not Required to Observe Neural Correlates of Object-based Attention in Retinotopic Visual Cortex

Abstract A central debated question in the study of object-based attention (OBA) is whether attention to the object-mediated deployment of attention is obligatory and automatic [Chen, Z., & Cave, K. R. Reinstating object-based attention under positional certainty: The importance of subjective parsing. Perception & Psychophysics, 68, 992–1003, 2006] or whether the pattern of results is driven by other non-obligatory factors, such as prioritization of invalid target locations [Shomstein, S., & Yantis, S. Object-based attention: Sensory modulation or priority setting? Perception & Psychophysics, 64, 41–51, 2002]. However, virtually all behavioral measures attributed to OBA are based on examining performance on invalid-cue trials, the inclusion of which confounds the assessment of the automaticity hypothesis. Our approach to resolve this issue is to determine whether effects of OBA can be observed in a 100% valid cueing paradigm. In this article, we investigate the obligatory nature of OBA by leveraging the spatial specificity of fMRI and the retinotopic organization of early visual cortex. We aimed to identify potential neural correlates of OBA in the complete absence of invalid trials. Participants perform a version of the classic two-rectangle OBA paradigm while we simultaneously measure changes in BOLD signals arising from retinotopically organized cortical areas V1, V2, and V3. In the first half of the experiment, we used the classic two-rectangle OBA paradigm except that the cue was 100% valid. In the second half, we reduced cue validity to more closely match standard OBA paradigms (runs containing invalid trials). We analyzed BOLD signals arising from our ROIs in V1, V2, and V3 according to their topographic correspondences with the ends of the rectangles in the visual field and compared these. We then compared responses in each ROI according to where the cue had occurred (cued, uncued-same-object, uncued-other-object location). We replicated this procedure in Experiment 2, but changed the layout of the two rectangles from a vertical to a horizontal configuration. Critical result: We observed statistically significant effects of OBA in V3 (Experiment 1) and V1–2 (Experiment 2) in both the 100% valid runs and in runs containing invalid trials. Moreover, the effects of OBA were no smaller in the 100% runs compared with runs containing invalid trials. Conclusion: We see BOLD modulation at the uncued locations consistent with neural correlates of OBA.