Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37236786›Full record

ArticleeNeuro2023

Attention without Constraint: Alpha Lateralization in Uncued Willed Attention.

John G Nadra, Jesse J Bengson, Alexander B Morales, George R Mangun

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in eNeuro, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed
2.6field-weighted citation impact, top 10% of its field
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

8 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Predictive Distractor Processing Relies on Integrated Proactive and Reactive Attentional Mechanisms.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026
    Article
  2. Spontaneous Alpha-Band Lateralization Extends Persistence of Visual Information in Iconic Memory by Modulating Cortical Excitability.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025
    Article
  3. Hierarchical Organization of Human Visual Feature Attention Control.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 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 at 1 institution in 1 country.

John G NadraCenter for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95618 jnadra@ucdavis.edu.
Jesse J BengsonCenter for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95618.
Alexander B MoralesCenter for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95618.
George R MangunCenter for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95618.
University of California, Davis · US

Funding

Vision Science Training Program: Cornea to CortexT32EY015387 · NEI · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS · PI MARIE E BURNS · 2003 to 2026
$4.8M
Mechanisms of attentional control: Structure and dynamics from simultaneous EEG-fMRI and machine learningR01MH117991 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · PI DING, MINGZHOU, MANGUN, GEORGE R · 2018 to 2022
$2.7M
NEI NIH HHS T32 EY015387NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH117991
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Studies of voluntary visual spatial attention have used attention-directing cues, such as arrows, to induce or instruct observers to focus selective attention on relevant locations in visual space to detect or discriminate subsequent target stimuli. In everyday vision, however, voluntary attention is influenced by a host of factors, most of which are quite different from the laboratory paradigms that use attention-directing cues. These factors include priming, experience, reward, meaning, motivations, and high-level behavioral goals. Attention that is endogenously directed in the absence of external attention-directing cues has been referred to as "self-initiated attention" or, as in our prior work, as "willed attention" where volunteers decide where to attend in response to a prompt to do so. Here, we used a novel paradigm that eliminated external influences (i.e., attention-directing cues and prompts) about where and/or when spatial attention should be directed. Using machine learning decoding methods, we showed that the well known lateralization of EEG alpha power during spatial attention was also present during purely self-generated attention. By eliminating explicit cues or prompts that affect the allocation of voluntary attention, this work advances our understanding of the neural correlates of attentional control and provides steps toward the development of EEG-based brain-computer interfaces that tap into human intentions.

Indexed as

AttentionVolitionCuesHumansMotivationReaction TimeSpace PerceptionVision, Ocularattentionattentional controlEEGmachine learningvolitionwill

Identifiers

PMID37236786
PMCPMC10270316
OpenAlexW4378473603

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.