Getting rid of visual distractors: the why, when, how, and where

Leonardo Chelazzi; Francesco Marini; David Pascucci; Massimo Turatto

doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.02.004

Getting rid of visual distractors: the why, when, how, and where

Curr Opin Psychol. 2019 Oct:29:135-147. doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.02.004. Epub 2019 Feb 14.

Authors

Leonardo Chelazzi¹, Francesco Marini², David Pascucci³, Massimo Turatto⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy; National Institute of Neuroscience, Verona, Italy. Electronic address: leonardo.chelazzi@univr.it.
² Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience, University of California, San Diego La Jolla, CA, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA.
³ Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
⁴ Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Trento, Italy.

PMID: 30856512
DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.02.004

Abstract

Distractor suppression, or the ability to disregard salient distractors while dealing with task-relevant information, is a key component of selective attention. Recent research has shown that distractor suppression can take place in different circumstances and present itself in different guises, which is presumably paralleled by a multiplicity of underlying neural mechanisms. In this review article, we discuss a number of central themes concerning distractor suppression and the underlying neural mechanisms, and also highlight several unresolved issues that will have to be addressed in future investigations.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Attention*
Brain / physiology*
Cues
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Photic Stimulation
Visual Perception*