AUTHOR=Machner Björn , Lencer Marie C. , Möller Lisa , von der Gablentz Janina , Heide Wolfgang , Helmchen Christoph , Sprenger Andreas TITLE=Unbalancing the Attentional Priority Map via Gaze-Contingent Displays Induces Neglect-Like Visual Exploration JOURNAL=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience VOLUME=14 YEAR=2020 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00041 DOI=10.3389/fnhum.2020.00041 ISSN=1662-5161 ABSTRACT=
Selective spatial attention is a crucial cognitive process that guides us to the behaviorally relevant objects in a complex visual world by using exploratory eye movements. The spatial location of objects, their (bottom-up) saliency and (top-down) relevance is assumed to be encoded in one “attentional priority map” in the brain, using different egocentric (eye-, head- and trunk-centered) spatial reference frames. In patients with hemispatial neglect, this map is supposed to be imbalanced, leading to a spatially biased exploration of the visual environment. As a proof of concept, we altered the visual saliency (and thereby attentional priority) of objects in a naturalistic scene along a left-right spatial gradient and investigated whether this can induce a bias in the exploratory eye movements of healthy humans (