The Attentional Attraction Field: Modeling spatial and temporal effects of spatial attention

Attentional effects were found for both neuronal and behavioral responses. Most of the studies considered spatial aspects of perception, but some revealed attentional effects in the temporal domain. Here we propose a model that is based on the conception of attention as an attraction field: The allocation of attention to a location attracts (shifts) the centers of receptive fields towards this location. We show that this attentional attraction of receptive fields can serve as a simple unifying framework to explain a diverse range of attentional effects including gain enhancement, enhanced contrast sensitivity, enhanced spatial resolution, prolonged temporal integration, prolonged perceived duration, prior onset and degraded temporal resolution. Additionally, the model successfully simulates multiplicative and non-multiplicative modulations of neuronal response and suppressed response surrounding the focus of attention. Thus, this model offers a novel way of looking at attentional effects. Instead of assuming that the fundamental impact of attention is enhancing neuronal response, we suggest that enhanced response and other seemingly unrelated attentional effects may all be a consequence of this attentional attraction field. Notably, this model links physiological measurements at the unit level with psychophysical observations of both the spatial and temporal domains of perception.