Schedule of Events | Symposia

Disentangling the neural responses to overlapping visual streams of task stimuli and emotional distractors in a sustained attention task

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 29, 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom
Also presenting in Data Blitz Session 2 - Saturday, March 29, 2025, 10:30 am – 12:00 pm EDT, Independence Ballroom.

David Rothlein^1,2, Samuel Agnoli², Travis Evans^1,2,4, Carrie Hughes^1,2, Audreyana Jagger-Rickels^1,2,3, Joseph DeGutis^2,6, Michael Esterman^1,2,3; ¹National Center for PTSD, VA Boston Healthcare System, ²Boston Attention and Learning Lab (BALLAB), VA Boston Healthcare System, ³Department of Psychiatry, Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine, ⁴Department of Psychological Sciences, Auburn University, ⁵Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

In real-world settings, attention balances competing information streams, suppressing distractions to complete goal-directed tasks while remaining sensitive to potential task-irrelevant surprises. How does the brain allocate resources to simultaneously monitor goal-directed information and background distractions? In this fMRI experiment, we used a novel sustained attention task, emogradCPT, where participants responded to a sequence of digit stimuli fading in and out, pressing a button for most digits and withholding for 3 (10% of trials). The digits were overlaid on emotionally positive (e.g., puppies) or negative (e.g., roadkill) backgrounds. We sought to distinguish neural signals from task-relevant digits vs. distracting backgrounds and track their neural pathways. We developed a design leveraging shared inter-subject neural responses exposed to identical stimuli to estimate predicted neural responses specific to the foreground digits or background images. Participants completed two runs: one with a fixed sequence of backgrounds behind a randomized digits, and another with fixed sequences digits and random backgrounds. By By averaging across participants to estimate predicted responses to the fixed sequences of digits and backgrounds. In a third run where both trial orders were fixed, we used these predictors to quantify the brain activity driven by digits versus backgrounds. We found that while sensitivity to backgrounds and digits was widespread, backgrounds dominated the visual cortex and dorsal attention network, and digits dominated the ventral attention and motor networks. This approach demonstrates the value of leveraging shared inter-subject responses in disentangling competing visual streams, providing a framework for studying attentional control dynamics amid emotional distraction.

Topic Area: ATTENTION: Other