On the Developmental Relationship between Visual Processing and Visual Attention: Examining Behavior and Functional Brain Connectivity

Lynn, Andrew

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Year:: 2020
Contributor:: Lynn, Andrew (creator); Amso, Dima (Advisor); Festa, Elena (Reader); Song, Joo-Hyun (Reader); Shenhav, Amitai (Reader); Brown University. Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences (sponsor)
Genre:: theses
Subject:: Vision; Attention; Brain Development; Child development
Extent:: 12, 99 p.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26300/fz1s-8v23

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Abstract:: Visual selective attention helps to filter irrelevant information, integrate an object’s constituent visual features, and enhance cortical visual processing at the attended location. Motivated by the organization of the visual cortex, my primary aim was to test whether visual feature processing and feature integration differentially impact visual attention development across childhood (4 – 12 years old). I focused on target selection based on visual features that are processed within the dorsal visual pathways relative to visual features processed across the ventral and dorsal visual pathways. In Study 1, I examined whether resting-state functional MRI network integration between the dorsal and ventral visual pathways develops differently than within pathway integration across childhood. I found that right dorsal pathway functional integration with the broader visual cortex changes with age and is primarily driven by connections between the right dorsal and right ventral pathways. This finding suggests that developmental change in visual selective attention may differ as a function of features combinations that must be integrated for target selection. In Study 2, I examined whether feature combinations differentially impact the development of visual selective attention, depending on feature integration demands across the dorsal and ventral pathways. Using a conjunction visual search task, I showed that for color-motion, but not luminance-motion-defined targets, better feature integration was associated with less efficient visual search. This suggests that feature integration demands may differentially influences selective attention abilities across childhood. In Study 3, I examined whether visual feature processing and feature integration contribute to visual selective attention abilities across childhood, depending on feature integration demands. Both color and luminance feature processing improved with age. I also found that incidental color-motion integration deceased with age, but deliberate color-motion integration increased with age. Critically, for color-motion relative to luminance-motion, better deliberate feature integration predicted less efficient conjunction search. Thus, feature integration rather than visual feature processing, may contribute to visual selective attention development. I conclude that the integrity of visual feature integration and visual cortex connectivity may shape visual attention development. These findings also suggest that there is value in conceptualizing selective attention development as a biased competition computation.
Notes:: Thesis (Ph. D.)--Brown University, 2020

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Rights: In Copyright
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Citation

Lynn, Andrew, "On the Developmental Relationship between Visual Processing and Visual Attention: Examining Behavior and Functional Brain Connectivity" (2020). Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences Theses and Dissertations. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://doi.org/10.26300/fz1s-8v23

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Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations for the Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences department.
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