Interaction between facilitatory and inhibitory effects due to voluntary and automatic covert orienting of attention
Gawryszewski, L.G.; Carreiro, L.R.
Revista Brasileira de Biologia 56(1 Suppl Part 2): 281-291
1996
ISSN/ISBN: 0034-7108 PMID: 9394507 Document Number: 461162
Covert orienting of attention to one spatial location improves the processing of signals occurring at this location at the expenses of the processing of signals occurring at other spatial positions. According to the premotor theory of visual attention, the voluntary orienting of attention to a peripheral position corresponds to the programming of a saccadic eye movement towards this position. A similar mechanism has been proposed to explain the inhibitory effects elicited by a non-informative peripheral cue. This review discusses some neural mechanisms involved in the facilitatory and inhibitory effects due to covert orienting of attention.