EEG signatures of contextual influences on visual search with real scenes
- 4 January 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Experimental Brain Research
- Vol. 239 (3), 797-809
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-020-05984-8
Abstract
The use of scene context is a powerful way by which biological organisms guide and facilitate visual search. Although many studies have shown enhancements of target-related electroencephalographic activity (EEG) with synthetic cues, there have been fewer studies demonstrating such enhancements during search with scene context and objects in real world scenes. Here, observers covertly searched for a target in images of real scenes while we used EEG to measure the steady state visual evoked response to objects flickering at different frequencies. The target appeared in its typical contextual location or out of context while we controlled for low-level properties of the image including target saliency against the background and retinal eccentricity. A pattern classifier using EEG activity at the relevant modulated frequencies showed target detection accuracy increased when the target was in a contextually appropriate location. A control condition for which observers searched the same images for a different target orthogonal to the contextual manipulation, resulted in no effects of scene context on classifier performance, confirming that image properties cannot explain the contextual modulations of neural activity. Pattern classifier decisions for individual images were also related to the aggregated observer behavioral decisions for individual images. Together, these findings demonstrate target-related neural responses are modulated by scene context during visual search with real world scenes and can be related to behavioral search decisions.Funding Information
- Army Research Office (W911NF-19-D-0001)
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (PDF 438993-13)
This publication has 48 references indexed in Scilit:
- Differential Electrophysiological Signatures of Semantic and Syntactic Scene ProcessingPsychological Science, 2013
- Visual attention: The past 25 yearsVision Research, 2011
- Scene context influences without scene gist: Eye movements guided by spatial associations in visual searchPsychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2011
- Visual search in scenes involves selective and nonselective pathwaysTrends in Cognitive Sciences, 2011
- The relative contribution of scene context and target features to visual search in scenesAttention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 2010
- Repeated Contextual Search Cues Lead to Reduced BOLD-Onset Times in Early Visual and Left Inferior Frontal CortexThe Open Neuroimaging Journal, 2010
- Hippocampal differentiation without recognition: An fMRI analysis of the contextual cueing taskLearning & Memory, 2007
- Cortically coupled computer vision for rapid image searchIEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 2006
- Effects of spatial cuing on luminance detectability: Psychophysical and electrophysiological evidence for early selection.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1994
- VISUAL EVOKED RESPONSES AND RETINAL ECCENTRICITYAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1982