Spatial attention emerges from complementary modulation of the neural alpha rhythm and head movements
Discuss this preprint
Start a discussion What are Sciety discussions?Listed in
This article is not in any list yet, why not save it to one of your lists.Abstract
The human brain is part of a moving body. However, almost all insights about the relationship between neural oscillations and cognition come from studies involving movement-constrained participants. Here, we test whether modulation of neural alpha oscillations (∼10 Hz) and goal-directed head movements implement redundancy in guiding the focus of spatial attention. Human participants ( N =33) listened to to-be-attended or to-be-ignored lateral sounds. Free head movements were allowed in half of the trials. We found two simultaneous attentional filter mechanisms. First, neural filtering showed up as decreased alpha power in the electroencephalogram (EEG) contralateral to targets and vice versa for distractors. Second, behavioral filtering was evidenced through gyroscopic tracking of head movements, which showed that listeners consistently turned the head towards lateral targets. Lateral distractors induced more variable movement patterns. Head rotations improved task accuracy by reducing target uncertainty and significant movement residues remained even when listeners were instructed not to move. To our surprise, trial-by-trial modulation of neural and behavioral filtering correlated positively, with lateralized alpha power sequentially interlocking with temporally delayed lateral eye movements and head rotations. We here see attention to emerge from sequential complementarity – rather than redundancy – of head movements with the neural alpha rhythm.
Significance statement
Cognitive neuroscience traditionally discards body movements as artifacts and, necessarily so, could not speak to their potentially integral role in cognition. We demonstrate a pivotal advantage from body movements in selective attention, a core cognitive function. Using mobile electroencephalography and gyroscopic tracking during auditory attention, we show that listeners rotate their heads towards relevant sounds, even when instructed not to, enhancing accuracy by reducing target uncertainty. Neural filtering, reflected in lateralized alpha oscillations, and behavioral filtering through head rotation were tightly linked in time and strength. Findings reveal that the foundation of attention is not purely neural but embodied—arising from interrelated neural and motor processes. Our results promote a reconceptualization of attention as a temporally interlocked brain–body process.
