Nilli Lavie

University College London | UCL · Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience

Sustained attention enables individuals to concentrate on a task over an extended period of time. This ability is known to fluctuate, resulting in periods of effective task focus ('in the zone') and periods of increased performance variability and susceptibility to errors ('out of the zone'). Little is known about the oscillatory neural dynamics th...

Introduction Mind wandering (MW) has been associated with reduced responsiveness to external stimuli (“perceptual decoupling”). Conversely, increased perceptual demands of a task result in reduced MW. Here we propose a neurobiological account attributing the mutually-limiting relationship of MW and perception to brain-wide limits on cerebral metabo...

Highly-automated technologies are increasingly incorporated into existing systems, for instance in advanced car models. Although highly automated modes permit non-driving activities (e.g. internet browsing), drivers are expected to reassume control upon a 'take over' signal from the automation. To assess a person's readiness for takeover, non-invas...

Adolescents face critical education milestones (e.g. final school exams). The understanding of whether attention continues to develop in adolescence is thus important both for cognitive development theory, and its application to attention during classroom lessons. Previous research however involves some discrepancies concerning whether attention ha...

Attention serves an essential role in cognition and behavior allowing us to focus on behaviorally-relevant objects while ignoring distraction. Perceptual load theory states that attentional resources are allocated according to the requirements of the task, i.e., its ‘load’. The theory predicts that the resources left to process irrelevant, possibly...

Objectives Post-stroke fatigue (PSF) is a prevalent symptom associated with attention deficits. However, it is currently unclear what drives these. Here we applied Load Theory of Attention to investigate the role of perceptual load in the relationship between attention, distraction, and fatigue levels in PSF. Methods Thirty-two chronic stroke surv...

Research over the past 25 years indicates that stimulus processing is diminished when attention is engaged in a perceptually demanding task of high ‘perceptual load’. These results have generalized across a variety of stimulus categories, but a controversy evolved over the question of whether perception of distractor faces (or other categories of p...

Attention is limited, both in processing capacity (leading to phenomena of "inattentional blindness") and in the capacity for selective focus (leading to distraction). Load theory (e.g., Lavie, 1995) accounts for both limitations by proposing that perceptual processing has limited capacity but proceeds automatically and in parallel on all stimuli w...

Attention serves an essential role in cognition and behaviour allowing us to focus on behaviourally-relevant objects while ignoring distraction. Perceptual load theory states that attentional resources are allocated according to the requirements of the task, i.e. its 'load'. The theory predicts that the resources left to process irrelevant, possibl...

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) load leads to impaired perception during maintenance. Here, we fitted the contrast response function to psychometric orientation discrimination data while also varying attention demand during maintenance to investigate: (1) whether VSTM load effects on perception are mediated by a modulation of the contrast threshold...

Limits on perceptual capacity result in various phenomena of inattentional blindness. Here we propose a neurophysiological account attributing these perceptual capacity limits directly to limits on cerebral cellular metabolism. We hypothesized that overall cerebral energy supply remains constant, irrespective of mental task demand, and therefore an...

Perceptual load is a well-established determinant of attentional engagement in a task. So far, perceptual load has typically been manipulated by increasing either the number of task-relevant items or the perceptual processing demand (e.g. conjunction versus feature tasks). The tasks used often involved rather simple visual displays (e.g. letters or...

The extent to which auditory processing depends on attention has been a key question in auditory cognitive neuroscience, crucial for establishing how the acoustic environment is represented in the brain when attention is directed away from sound. Here I review emerging behavioural and brain imaging results which demonstrate that, contrary to the tr...

The task of driving can sometimes require the processing of large amounts of visual information; such situations can overload the perceptual systems of human drivers leading to ‘inattentional blindness’, where potentially critical visual information is overlooked. This phenomenon of ‘looking but failing to see’ is the third largest contributor to t...

Capacity limits in perception can lead to failures of awareness in situations that overload capacity, resulting in various phenomena of 'inattentional blindness'. In contrast, capacity limits in cognitive control over attention by working memory lead to increased processing of irrelevant distractors (reduced inattentional blindness). Here, using Vo...

Figure-ground segregation is fundamental to listening in complex acoustic environments. An ongoing debate pertains to whether segregation requires attention or is “automatic” and preattentive. In this magnetoencephalography study, we tested a prediction derived from load theory of attention (e.g., Lavie, 1995) that segregation requires attention bu...

Limited capacity for visual perception results in various "inattentional blindness" phenomena across a wide variety of manipulations that load perception. Here, we propose that these phenomena are mediated by an underlying generalized capacity for visual perception, which also underlies subitizing: the ability to enumerate a limited number of items...

Figure-ground segregation is fundamental to listening in complex acoustic environments. An ongoing debate pertains to whether segregation requires attention or is ‘automatic’ and pre-attentive. In this magnetoencephalography (MEG) study we tested a prediction derived from Load Theory of attention ¹ that segregation requires attention, but can benef...

To drive safely requires perceiving vast amounts of rapidly changing visual information. This can exhaust our limited perceptual capacity and lead to cases of 'looking but failing to see', reportedly the third largest contributing factor to road traffic accidents. In the present work we use a 3D convolutional neural network to model the perceptual...

I will review recent work in my lab concerning the effect of attentional focus on brain responses to unattended sounds. The first series of experiments aimed to understand how the neural representations of tracked (attended) and ignored sources change with growing scene size. We used acoustic “scenes,” comprised of multiple concurrent tone-pip stre...

The effects of perceptual load on visual cortex response to distractors are well established and various phenomena of ‘inattentional blindness’ associated with elimination of visual cortex response to unattended distractors, have been documented in tasks of high load. Here we tested an account for these effects in terms of a load-induced trade-off...

Failures to focus attention will affect any task engagement (e.g., at work, in the classroom, when driving). At the clinical end, distractibility is a diagnostic criterion of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In this study, we examined whether the inability to maintain attentional focus varies in the overall population in the form of...

Significance statement: The present work clarifies the neural underpinning of inattentional deafness under high visual load. The findings of near-simultaneous load effects on both visual and auditory evoked responses suggest shared audiovisual processing capacity. Temporary depletion of shared capacity in perceptually demanding visual tasks leads...

We report three experiments examining the effects of positive versus negative valence and perceptual load in determining attention capture by irrelevant emotional distractors. Participants performed a letter search task searching for one of two target letters (X or N) in conditions of either low perceptual load (circular non-target letters) or high...

We report three experiments examining the effects of positive versus negative valence and perceptual load in determining attention capture by irrelevant emotional distractors. Participants performed a letter search task searching for one of two target letters (X or N) in conditions of either low perceptual load (circular non-target letters) or high...

High perceptual load in a task is known to reduce the visual perception of unattended items (e.g., Lavie, Beck, & Konstantinou, 2014). However, it remains an open question whether perceptual load in one modality (e.g., vision) can affect the detection of stimuli in another modality (e.g., hearing). We report four experiments that establish that hig...

Objective: Appropriate reactivity to emotional facial expressions, even if these are seen whilst we are engaged in another activity, is critical for successful social interaction. Children with conduct problems (CP) and high levels of callous-unemotional (CU) traits are characterized by blunted reactivity to other people's emotions, while children...

We establish a new dissociation between the roles of working memory (WM) cognitive control and visual maintenance in selective attention as measured by the efficiency of distractor rejection. The extent to which focused selective attention can prevent distraction has been shown to critically depend on the level and type of load involved in the task...

What is the relationship between attention and conscious awareness? Awareness sometimes appears to be restricted to the contents of focused attention, yet at other times irrelevant distractors will dominate awareness. This contradictory relationship has also been reflected in an abundance of discrepant research findings leading to an enduring contr...

Attention and awareness are known to be linked (e.g., see Lavie et al., 2014, for a review). However the extent to which this link changes over development is not fully understood. Most research concerning the development of attention has investigated the effects of attention on distraction, visual search and spatial orienting, typically using reac...

Due to its limited capacity, visual perception depends on the allocation of attention. The resultant phenomena of inattentional blindness, accompanied by reduced sensory visual cortex response to unattended stimuli in conditions of high perceptual load in the attended task, are now well established (Lavie, 2005; Lavie, 2010, for reviews). However,...

Objective: Attention research in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has produced conflicting results. Some findings demonstrate greater distractibility while others suggest superior focused attention. Applying Lavie's load theory of attention to account for this discrepancy led us to hypothesize increased perceptual capacity in ASD. P...

Distraction typically has a negative impact on memory for recent events and patients with existing memory impairment are particularly vulnerable to distractor interference. In contrast, here we establish a beneficial effect for distractor presentation in humans for both patients with memory impairment due to bilateral hippocampal lesions and health...

Objective: Increased vulnerability to extraneous distraction is a key symptom of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which may have particularly disruptive consequences. Here we apply Load Theory of attention to increase understanding of this symptom, and to explore a potential method for ameliorating it. Previous research in nonclini...

Attention may be distracted from its intended focus both by stimuli in the external environment and by internally generated task-unrelated thoughts during mind wandering. However, previous attention research has focused almost exclusively on distraction by external stimuli, and the extent to which mind wandering relates to external distraction is a...

We contrasted the effects of different types of working memory (WM) load on detection. Considering the sensory-recruitment hypothesis of visual short-term memory (VSTM) within load theory (e.g., Lavie, 2010) led us to predict that VSTM load would reduce visual-representation capacity, thus leading to reduced detection sensitivity during maintenance...

The brain is frequently confronted with sensory information that elicits conflicting response choices. While much research has addressed the top down control mechanisms associated with detection and resolution of response competition, the effects of response competition on sensory processing in primary visual cortex remain unclear. To address this...

Load Theory of attention suggests that high perceptual load in a task leads to reduced sensory visual cortex response to task-unrelated stimuli resulting in "load-induced blindness" [e.g., Lavie, N. Attention, distraction and cognitive control under load. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19, 143-148, 2010; Lavie, N. Distracted and confu...

Are task-irrelevant stimuli processed to a level enabling individual identification? This question is central both for perceptual processing models and for applied settings (e.g., eye-witness testimony). Lavie’s load theory proposes that working memory actively maintains attentional prioritization of relevant over irrelevant information. Loading wo...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) research portrays a mixed picture of attentional abilities with demonstrations of enhancements (e.g., superior visual search) and deficits (e.g., higher distractibility). Here we test a potential resolution derived from the Load Theory of Attention (e.g., Lavie, 2005). In Load Theory, distractor processing depends on...

The question of whether a stimulus onset may capture attention when it is entirely irrelevant to the task and even in the absence of any attentional settings for abrupt onset or any dynamic changes has been highly controversial. In the present study, we designed a novel irrelevant capture task to address this question. Participants engaged in a con...

Much previous research has demonstrated that perceptual processing depends on the level of perceptual load involved. Tasks of high perceptual load result in reduced perception of any task-irrelevant stimuli accompanied by reduced visual cortex response. However, it remains unclear whether these effects are mediated by an effect of perceptual load o...

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the occipital pole can produce an illusory percept of a light flash (or 'phosphene'), suggesting an excitatory effect. Whereas previous reported effects produced by single-pulse occipital pole TMS are typically disruptive, here we report the first demonstration of a location-specific facilitatory effect...

Increasing perceptual load reduces the processing of visual stimuli outside the focus of attention, but the mechanism underlying these effects remains unclear. Here we tested an account attributing the effects of perceptual load to modulations of visual cortex excitability. In contrast to stimulus competition accounts, which propose that load shoul...

In this article, we establish a new phenomenon of “inattentional deafness” and highlight the level of load on visual attention as a critical determinant of this phenomenon. In three experiments, we modified an inattentional blindness paradigm to assess inattentional deafness. Participants made either a low- or high-load visual discrimination concer...

We establish attentional capture by emotional distractor faces presented as a "singleton" in a search task in which the emotion is entirely irrelevant. Participants searched for a male (or female) target face among female (or male) faces and indicated whether the target face was tilted to the left or right. The presence (vs. absence) of an irreleva...

When stimuli compete for sensory processing and response selection, coherent goal-guided behavior requires cognitive control so that task-relevant "targets" rather than irrelevant distractors are selected. It has been shown that reduced cognitive control under high working memory load increases distractor competition for selection. It remains unkno...

Load theory of attention proposes that distractor processing is reduced in tasks with high perceptual load that exhaust attentional capacity within task-relevant processing. In contrast, tasks of low perceptual load leave spare capacity that spills over, resulting in the perception of task-irrelevant, potentially distracting stimuli. Tsal and Benon...

We applied the Load Theory of attention (Lavie, 1995, 2005) to the case of distraction during processing of lateralised words presented in either the right or the left visual fields. Previous research (Brand-D'Abrescia & Lavie, 2007) showed that lexicality affects selective attention such that the number of letters in a search task only increases p...

Binocular rivalry occurs when dissimilar images are presented to each eye. Rather than a combined picture being perceived, each monocular image competes for perceptual dominance, becoming visible for a few seconds while the other is suppressed. Stable visual input thus leads to alternations in conscious perception, dissociating stimulation from awa...

Lavie (1995, 2000) suggested that the processing of task-irrelevant stimuli depends upon the level of perceptual load in the relevant task. Conditions of low perceptual load leave spare capacity which spills over to irrelevant processing. Conditions of high perceptual load engage full attention leaving no capacity for any irrelevant processing. Sup...

We present imaging and behavioral experiments, establishing that visual short-term memory (VSTM) load, similar to perceptual load (e.g. Macdonald and Lavie (2008), but opposite to task-unrelated verbal working memory load (see Konstantinou & Lavie, 2010), can reduce both detection sensitivity (d') and the related signal in V1 for peripheral stimuli...

The extent to which people can focus attention in the face of irrelevant distractions has been shown to critically depend on the level and type of information load involved in their current task. The ability to focus attention improves under task conditions of high perceptual load but deteriorates under conditions of high load on cognitive control...

Motion in distant locations beyond the extent of classical V5/MT receptive fields (CRF) influences motion processing for within CRF stimuli (Allman, Meizin, McGuinness, 1985). Here, we report two experiments investigating the characteristics of such long range motion interaction in humans. In a first, behavioral experiment, we showed a congruency e...

In all previous studies of perceptual load, high load was shown to modulate the processing of irrelevant stimuli that were always presented concurrently with the target. Here we report results from a new paradigm used to test the effect of perceptual load on detection of peripheral stimuli that were never presented concurrently with targets. Subjec...

Subjective visual experience depends not only on the spatial arrangement of the environment, but also on the temporal pattern of stimulation. For example, flickering and steady light presented in the same location evoke a very different conscious experience due to their different temporal patterns. Does attention play a role in temporal aspects of...

The effects of perceptual load on the level of adaptation to task-irrelevant and invisible oriented gratings were examined. Participants performed a task at fixation under conditions of low (detecting color targets) or high (detecting conjunctions of color and shape) perceptual load. Simultaneously, a task-irrelevant-oriented grating was presented...

Binocular rivalry occurs when dissimilar images are presented to the two eyes: the images compete for perceptual dominance, with each image visible in turn for a few seconds while the other is suppressed from awareness. Previous neuroimaging research has shown that right parietal and frontal cortical regions are involved in the perceptual transitio...

Previous studies have shown that practice in performing a selective attention task leads to improvement in ignoring task-irrelevant distractor stimuli (Kelley & Yantis, 2007). Performance in a color discrimination task was hindered by the presence (vs. absence) of irrelevant distractor stimuli (e.g. images of objects); these distractor interference...

Reducing the availability of working memory, by loading it in an unrelated concurrent task, impairs the ability to maintain perceptual selectivity and ignore distracters in visual attention tasks. This suggests a role for working memory in the top-down control of attention. Here, we show that working memory may serve a broader function in the contr...

Recent studies in humans and animals raise the possibility that actively maintaining a detailed memory of a scene within working memory may require the hippocampus, a brain structure better known for its role in long-term memory. We show that the hippocampus is behaviorally and functionally critical for configural-relational (CR) maintenance by orc...

We tested contrasting predictions derived from perceptual load theory and from recent feature-based selection accounts. Observers viewed moving, colored stimuli and performed low or high load tasks associated with one stimulus feature, either color or motion. The resultant motion aftereffect (MAE) was used to evaluate attentional allocation. We fou...

Enhanced sensitivity to information of negative (compared to positive) valence has an adaptive value, for example, by expediting the correct choice of avoidance behavior. However, previous evidence for such enhanced sensitivity has been inconclusive. Here we report a clear advantage for negative over positive words in categorizing them as emotional...

Predictions from perceptual load theory (Lavie, 1995, 2005) regarding object recognition across the same or different viewpoints were tested. Results showed that high perceptual load reduces distracter recognition levels despite always presenting distracter objects from the same view. They also showed that the levels of distracter recognition were...

The ability to maintain information online beyond sensory stimulation is regarded as a key contribution of working memory to goal-directed behaviour. It is widely accepted that sustained neural activity is a key mechanism of stimulus maintenance, but it is unclear to what extent the neural generators of sustained activity change from stimulus-encod...

Several studies have demonstrated that faces are processed differently from other types of objects, implicating a special role that faces have within the human visual system. However, other studies have suggested that faces may be special only in that they constitute a highly familiar category of visual objects with which most humans have expertise...

Perceptual load is a key determinant of distraction by task-irrelevant stimuli (e.g., Lavie, N. (2005). Distracted and confused?: Selective attention under load. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 75–82). Here we establish the role of perceptual load in determining an internal form of distraction by task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs or “mind-wandering”)....

Load theory suggests that working memory controls the extent to which irrelevant distractors are processed (e.g., Lavie, Hirst, De Fockert, & Viding, 2004). However, so far this proposal has only been tested in vision. Here, we examine the extent to which tactile selective attention also depends on working memory. In Experiment 1, participants focu...