Salience Level for Visual Attention
What You Need to Know Before You Apply
What is the purpose of this trial?
This trial explores how the brain decides where to look when viewing a scene, such as finding Waldo in a "Where's Waldo" game. Researchers aim to understand how certain brain regions map out important areas based on features like color or motion, known as Feature Dimension Maps. Participants will watch images on a screen while researchers track their gaze to learn how the brain processes these visual cues. This research could enhance understanding of how the visual system functions in healthy individuals. Candidates with normal vision, with or without glasses or contacts, might be a good fit. As an unphased study, this trial offers a unique opportunity to contribute to foundational research on visual processing.
Will I have to stop taking my current medications?
The trial information does not specify whether you need to stop taking your current medications.
What prior data suggests that this method is safe for participants?
Previous studies have shown that the brain uses 'feature dimension maps' to focus on important visual details, such as color or motion. This mechanism helps guide attention in scenes with many distractions. The treatment in this trial involves observing different visual patterns to understand how these brain areas function.
There are no specific safety concerns with this treatment, as it primarily involves watching visual patterns and tracking eye movements. To date, no negative effects have been reported from this type of research. Participants will simply view images on a screen, which is a normal and safe activity.12345Why are researchers excited about this trial?
Researchers are excited about the trial examining Feature Dimension Maps for visual attention because it explores how manipulating visual features like color and motion can enhance attention. Unlike standard methods that may not focus on feature contrast, this approach aims to make certain stimuli more noticeable by adjusting their visual properties. This could lead to a deeper understanding of how visual attention can be optimized, potentially informing new ways to help individuals with attention-related challenges.
What evidence suggests that this trial's treatments could be effective for visual attention?
Research has shown that certain areas in the brain help focus on visual stimuli by acting as 'feature maps.' These maps can identify important spots based on attributes like color or movement. For example, if something bright red appears against a dull background, the brain's color map might highlight it as significant. This trial will explore how manipulating the salience of features, such as color or motion direction, affects visual attention. Studies suggest that these feature maps guide attention by making standout features more noticeable, thus aiding in locating specific targets.56789
Who Is on the Research Team?
Tommy Sprague
Principal Investigator
University of California, Santa Barbara
Are You a Good Fit for This Trial?
This trial is for individuals aged 18 to 55 with normal or corrected-to-normal vision. It's designed to explore how people focus their attention on different parts of a visual scene, like finding Waldo in a busy picture.Inclusion Criteria
Exclusion Criteria
Timeline for a Trial Participant
Screening
Participants are screened for eligibility to participate in the trial
Experimental Manipulation
Participants view stimuli with varying feature salience based on color, motion, or luminance contrast. Eye-tracking data is collected to analyze gaze positions.
Follow-up
Participants are monitored for any additional data collection or analysis post-experiment.
What Are the Treatments Tested in This Trial?
Interventions
- Feature Dimension Maps
Trial Overview
The study tests how the brain identifies important locations in a visual scene based on feature types such as color or motion. Participants will view stimuli while eye-tracking data is collected to analyze where they look and how salient features capture their attention.
How Is the Trial Designed?
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Treatment groups
Experimental Treatment
Participants will view stimuli made salient based on feature contrast in one feature dimensions (color or motion direction; or checkerboard luminance contrast). The degree to which a location is salient will be manipulated based on the feature contrast across multiple values
Find a Clinic Near You
Who Is Running the Clinical Trial?
University of California, Santa Barbara
Lead Sponsor
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Collaborator
Published Research Related to This Trial
Citations
Feature-Specific Salience Maps in Human Cortex - PMC
Priority map theory is a leading framework for understanding how various aspects of stimulus displays and task demands guide visual attention.
Salience Level for Visual Attention · Info for Participants
This study provides evidence that specific regions in the human visual cortex act as 'feature dimension maps' that prioritize locations based on distinct visual ...
An awareness-dependent mapping of saliency in the ...
We found a graded distribution of salience with awareness, changing to a non-graded distribution without awareness.
Feature-specific salience maps in human cortex
Computational theories suggest that priority maps identify salient locations based on individual feature dimensions (e.g., color, motion), which ...
Characterizing the effects of feature salience and top-down ...
We report additive effects of attention and bottom-up salience in early visual areas, suggesting that salience enhancement is not contingent on the observer's ...
Visual Saliency Computations: Mechanisms, Constraints, and ...
The primate visual system continuously selects spatial proscribed regions, features or objects for further processing.
Probing the Role of Feature Dimension Maps in Visual Cognition ...
Probing the Role of Feature Dimension Maps in Visual Cognition: Impact of Salience Level (Expt 1.1) · Overview. How does one know what to look at in a scene?
Probing the Role of Feature Dimension Maps in Visual ...
The goal of this study is to determine how brain regions that respond strongly to different feature types (color and motion) and which encode spatial locations ...
Saliency, attention, and visual search: An information theoretic ...
In this context, the combined pooling of the basic feature maps is referred to as the saliency map. Saliency in this context then refers to the output of an ...
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