How early does attention modulate visual information processing? The importance of experimental protocol and data analysis approach.

Heleen A Slagter, Josipa Alilovic, Simon Van Gaal

Abstract readComment

In one paragraph

Article in Cognitive neuroscience. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

3citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

The expert's fixation: cognitive efficiency and attentional selectivity in wheelchair curling athletes across the expertise spectrum.Frontiers in psychology · 2026
Article
No Evidence that Predictions and Attention Modulate the First Feedforward Sweep of Cortical Information Processing.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2019
Article
Independent Neural Activity Patterns for Sensory- and Confidence-Based Information Maintenance during Category-Selective Visual Processing.eNeuro
Article

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Heleen A Slagtera Department of Psychology , University of Amsterdam , Amsterdam , The Netherlands.

Josipa Alilovica Department of Psychology , University of Amsterdam , Amsterdam , The Netherlands.

Simon Van Gaala Department of Psychology , University of Amsterdam , Amsterdam , The Netherlands.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Whether attention can influence afferent information processing in primary visual cortex (V1) has long been topic of scientific debate. Findings from a recent study by Baumgarter et al. (this issue) add to this debate by providing a null replication of an influential study that reported that spatial attention can enhance feedforward information processing in human V1, as reflected in the amplitude of the C1 ERP component (Kelly, Gomez-Raminez, & Foxe, 2008). Here we discuss several factors, including analytic approach, experimental design, and motivational factors, that, once scientifically tested, may help resolve discrepancies in the current literature.

Indexed as

Evoked Potentials, VisualVisual PerceptionAttentionData AnalysisElectroencephalographyElectronic Data ProcessingHumansVisual CortexC1EEGERPselective attentionspatial attentionV1

Identifiers

PMID28845741

DOI10.1080/17588928.2017.1372405

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.