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Object-based attention involves subcortical neural mechanisms

Mechanisms of object-based attention (OBA) are commonly associated with the cerebral cortex. However, less is known about the involvement of lower visual pathways in these processes. In the current study, the classic double-rectangle cueing task (Egly et al., 1994) was implemented in a stereoscope, in order to differentiate between the involvement of lower (monocular) and higher (binocular) visual pathways in OBA processes. We found that there was a functional role for subcortical structures in two main aspects of OBA: in the process of exogenous orienting towards an object (Experiment 1; N =34); and in the process of attentional deployment within objects (Experiment 2; N =32). Thus, it seems that subcortical visual regions are not simply passing information to higher cortical areas but have a functional computational role in OBA. These findings emphasize the importance of subcortical regions in attentional processes and, more specifically, in OBA.