Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40008864›Full record

ArticleeLife2025

Neural mechanisms of learned suppression uncovered by probing the hidden attentional priority map.

Changrun Huang, Dirk van Moorselaar, Joshua Foster, Mieke Donk, Jan Theeuwes

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in eLife, 2025. 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
–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

8 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Review
  3. When forewarned is not forearmed: No evidence for cue-based proactive control in the spatial Stroop task.Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance · 2026
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Learning Modulates Early Encephalographic Responses to Distracting Stimuli: A Combined SSVEP and ERP Study.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025
    Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
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

5 authors.

Changrun HuangDepartment of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1627-0887
Dirk van MoorselaarDepartment of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Joshua FosterDepartment of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, United States.
Mieke DonkDepartment of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Jan TheeuwesDepartment of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Funding

China Scholarship Council 201908440284European Research Council 833029
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Attentional capture by an irrelevant salient distractor is attenuated when the distractor appears more frequently in one location, suggesting learned suppression of that location. However, it remains unclear whether suppression is proactive (before attention is directed) or reactive (after attention is allocated). Here, we investigated this using a 'pinging' technique to probe the attentional distribution before search onset. In an EEG experiment, participants searched for a shape singleton while ignoring a color singleton distractor at a high-probability location. To reveal the hidden attentional priority map, participants also performed a continuous recall spatial memory task, with a neutral placeholder display presented before search onset. Behaviorally, search was more efficient when the distractor appeared at the high-probability location. Inverted encoding analysis of EEG data showed tuning profiles that decayed during memory maintenance but were revived by the placeholder display. Notably, tuning was most pronounced at the to-be-suppressed location, suggesting initial spatial selection followed by suppression. These findings suggest that learned distractor suppression is a reactive process, providing new insights into learned spatial distractor suppression mechanisms.

Indexed as

AttentionLearningAdultElectroencephalographyFemaleHumansMaleSpatial MemoryYoung Adultattentional priority mapdistractor suppressionhumanneurosciencestatistical learningvisual search

Identifiers

PMID40008864
PMCPMC11864755

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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.