Color selection and location selection in ERPs: differences, similarities and 'neural specificity'

It was hypothesized that color selection consists of two stages. The first stage represents a feature specific selection in neural populations specialized in processing color. The second stage constitutes feature non-specific selections, related to executive attentional processes and/or motor processes. This hypothesis was tested by investigating the effects of selectively attending to a specific color, location, or conjunction of location and color on the ERPs elicited by briefly flashed gratings. The gratings differed on three dimensions: color (red or blue), location in the visual field (4.4 degrees to the left or right of fixation) and form (target or non-target). Subjects had to respond to the presentation of target gratings in the attended category. Color selection was reflected in an enhanced parietal positivity in the 150-190 ms interval. Source analyses suggested that this color selection positivity might be generated in the basal occipital cortex, possibly human V4, an area of the brain specialized in color processing. The effect was separated from the P1 spatial attention effect both in topography and sources. Color selection was also reflected in a contralateral occipitotemporal negativity, which resembled the N1 spatial attention effect both in timing and topography. And finally, color selection was reflected in an N2b component. This N2b was similar in timing, topography and sources to the N2b's elicited by location selection and conjunction selection. We suggested that the N2b reflects feature non-specific selection processes, elicited by a range of attended stimuli, and possibly reflects activity in the anterior cingulate cortex. The NP80 was unaffected by attention to color and/or location and localized in striate cortex. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.