How spatial attention alters visual cortical representation during target anticipation

Attention enables us to efficiently and flexibly interact with the environment by prioritizing specific image locations and features in preparation for responding to stimuli. Using a concurrent psychophysics–fMRI experiment, we investigated how covert spatial attention modulates responses in human visual cortex before target onset and how it affects subsequent behavioral performance. Performance improved at cued locations and worsened at uncued locations compared to distributed attention, demonstrating a selective processing tradeoff. Pre-target BOLD responses in cortical visual field maps revealed two key changes: First, a stimulus-independent baseline shift, with increases near cued locations and decreases elsewhere, paralleling behavioral results. Second, a shift in population receptive field centers toward the attended location. Both effects increased in higher visual areas. Together, these findings reveal that spatial attention has large effects on visual cortex prior to target appearance, altering neural response properties across multiple visual field maps and enhancing performance through anticipatory mechanisms.