Although visual input arrives continuously, sensory information is segmented into (quasi-)discrete events. Here, we investigated the neural correlates of spatiotemporal binding in humans with magnetoencephalography using two tasks where separate flashes were presented on each trial but were perceived, in a bistable way, as either a single or two separate events. The first task (two-flash fusion) involved judging one versus two flashes, whereas the second task (apparent motion: AM) involved judging coherent motion versus two stationary flashes. Results indicate two different functional networks underlying two unique aspects of temporal binding. In two-flash fusion trials, involving an integration window of ∼50 msec, evoked responses differed as a function of perceptual interpretation by ∼25 msec after stimuli offset. Multivariate decoding of subjective perception based on prestimulus oscillatory phase was significant for alpha-band activity in the right medial temporal (V5/MT) area, with the strength of prestimulus connectivity between early visual areas and V5/MT being predictive of performance. In contrast, the longer integration window (∼130 msec) for AM showed evoked field differences only ∼250 msec after stimuli offset. Phase decoding of the perceptual outcome in AM trials was significant for theta-band activity in the right intraparietal sulcus. Prestimulus theta-band connectivity between V5/MT and intraparietal sulcus best predicted AM perceptual outcome. For both tasks, phase effects found could not be accounted by concomitant variations in power. These results show a strong relationship between specific spatiotemporal binding windows and specific oscillations, linked to the information flow between different areas of the where and when visual pathways.

We recorded magnetoencephalography using a neural entrainment paradigm with compound face stimuli that allowed for entraining the processing of various parts of a face (eyes, mouth) as well as changes in facial identity. Our magnetic response image-guided magnetoencephalography analyses revealed that different subnodes of the human face processing network were entrained differentially according to their functional specialization. Whereas the occipital face area was most responsive to the rate at which face parts (e.g., the mouth) changed, and face patches in the STS were mostly entrained by rhythmic changes in the eye region, the fusiform face area was the only subregion that was strongly entrained by the rhythmic changes in facial identity. Furthermore, top–down attention to the mouth, eyes, or identity of the face selectively modulated the neural processing in the respective area (i.e., occipital face area, STS, or fusiform face area), resembling behavioral cue validity effects observed in the participants' RT and detection rate data. Our results show the attentional weighting of the visual processing of different aspects and dimensions of a single face object, at various stages of the involved visual processing hierarchy.

In two EEG experiments, we studied the role of visual attention during the preparation of manual movements around an obstacle. Participants performed rapid hand movements to a goal position avoiding a central obstacle either on the left or right side, depending on the pitch of the acoustical go signal. We used a dot probe paradigm to analyze the deployment of spatial attention in the visual field during the motor preparation. Briefly after the go signal but still before the hand movement actually started, a visual transient was flashed either on the planned pathway of the hand (congruent trials) or on the opposite, movement-irrelevant side (incongruent trials). The P1/N1 components that were evoked by the onset of the dot probe were enhanced in congruent trials where the visual transient was presented on the planned path of the hand. The results indicate that, during movement preparation, attention is allocated selectively to the planned trajectory the hand is going to take around the obstacle.

A dot-probe paradigm was used to provide physiological evidence for the parallel selection of multiple movement goals before rapid hand movement sequences. Participants executed a sequence of manual pointing movements to two out of three possible goal positions. During movement preparation, a task-irrelevant visual transient (a dot probe) was flashed either at one of both movement goals, or at the third, movement-irrelevant location. The results revealed that the N1 component induced by the presentation of the dot was enhanced if the dot was flashed at one of the movement goals, indicating that both target positions were attended before the initialization of the movement sequence. A second experiment showed that movement-irrelevant locations between the movement goals were not attended, suggesting that attention splits into spatially distinct foci.