Schedule of Events | Symposia

Pinging the Hidden Attentional Priority Map: Suppression Needs Attention

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 29, 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Changrun Huang^1,2,3 (changrun.huang@duke.edu), Dirk van Moorselaar^2,3, Joshua Foster⁵, Mieke Donk^2,3, Jan Theeuwes^2,3,4; ¹Duke University, ²Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, ³Institute Brain and Behavior (iBBA), Amsterdam, the Netherlands, ⁴ISPA-Instituto Universitario, Lisbon, Portugal, ⁵Boston University

Attentional capture by an irrelevant salient distractor can be mitigated when it frequently appears in a specific location, suggesting learned suppression of that location. However, it remains unclear whether this suppression is proactive—occurring before attention is directed to the distractor—or reactive, occurring after attention has been engaged. To address this, we utilized the pinging technique, which visualizes the attentional priority map prior to the search display. In an EEG experiment, participants performed a visual search task (additional singleton paradigm) during the maintenance period of a continuous recall spatial memory task. A neutral placeholder display was introduced after the memory cue and before the search display. The visual search task included a regularity: a singleton distractor was more likely to appear in one location. Behaviorally, suppression of the high-probability distractor location was evident, as search efficiency increased when the distractor appeared there. Using a forward encoding approach, we reconstructed the spatial tuning profile of the memorized position. Results revealed reliable tuning profiles during memory maintenance, which decayed over time but reemerged with the placeholder display preceding search. Critically, the revived tuning profile exhibited a spatial gradient centered on the high-probability location, with pronounced tuning at the to-be-suppressed location. These findings support a reactive suppression account, where learned suppression is preceded by an initial phase of spatial selection. This study advances our understanding of spatial distractor suppression mechanisms.

Topic Area: ATTENTION: Spatial