Reward Learning Drives Modulation on Visual Attention
GONG Meng-yuan1Jia Ke2 Li Sheng3,4,5,6
1. Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, Michigan 48824, U.S.; 2. Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK; 3. School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences; 4. PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research; 5. Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health; 6. Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
Abstract:Learned reward predictiveness alters stimulus salience and modifies visual selective attention towards the reward-associated item. The investigation of the neural mechanism underlying reward-driven modulation on attentional processing promotes the understanding of human adaptive behaviors. Recent studies showed enhanced neural representation of the reward-associated stimulus in terms of its location and feature. Moreover, reward can strengthen suppression over its associated distractor by decreasing attentional allocation and weakening the sensory representation in early visual cortex. These findings suggest a key role of reward signals in modulating cognitive control for behavioral optimization.