Neural Evidence for Attentional Capture by Salient Distractors

Salient objects often capture our attention, serving as distractors and hindering our current goals. It remains unclear when and how salient distractors interact with our goals and our knowledge on the neural mechanisms responsible for attentional capture is limited to a few brain regions recorded from non-human primates. Here we conducted a multivariate analysis on human intracranial signals covering most brain regions, and successfully dissociated distractor-specific representations from target-arousal signals in the high-frequency (60-100 Hz) activity. We found that salient distractors were processed rapidly around 220 ms, while target-tuning attention was attenuated simultaneously, supporting initial capture by distractors. Notably, neuronal activity specific to the distractor representation was strongest in superior and middle temporal gyrus, amygdala, and anterior cingulate cortex, while there were smaller contributions from parietal and frontal cortices. These results provide neural evidence for attentional capture by salient distractors engaging a much larger network than previously appreciated.