Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34188169›Full record

ArticleCommunications biology2021

Attention expedites target selection by prioritizing the neural processing of distractor features.

Mandy V Bartsch, Christian Merkel, Mircea A Schoenfeld, Jens-Max Hopf

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Communications biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing 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

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Broadband high-frequency activity initializes distractor suppression.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2025
    Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Mandy V BartschLeibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany. mandyvbartsch@gmail.com.ORCID 0000-0002-9276-5160
Christian MerkelDepartment of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany.
Mircea A SchoenfeldLeibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.
Jens-Max HopfLeibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany. jens-max.hopf@med.ovgu.de.ORCID 0000-0002-5790-9800

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Whether doing the shopping, or driving the car - to navigate daily life, our brain has to rapidly identify relevant color signals among distracting ones. Despite a wealth of research, how color attention is dynamically adjusted is little understood. Previous studies suggest that the speed of feature attention depends on the time it takes to enhance the neural gain of cortical units tuned to the attended feature. To test this idea, we had human participants switch their attention on the fly between unpredicted target color alternatives, while recording the electromagnetic brain response to probes matching the target, a non-target, or a distracting alternative target color. Paradoxically, we observed a temporally prioritized processing of distractor colors. A larger neural modulation for the distractor followed by its stronger attenuation expedited target identification. Our results suggest that dynamic adjustments of feature attention involve the temporally prioritized processing and elimination of distracting feature representations.

Indexed as

AdultAttentionBrainColor PerceptionEvoked PotentialsFemaleHumansMaleYoung Adult

Identifiers

PMID34188169
PMCPMC8242025

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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.