Recent studies suggest that attention samples space rhythmically through oscillatory interactions in the frontoparietal network. How these attentional fluctuations coincide with spatial exploration/displacement and exploitation/selection by a dynamic attentional spotlight under top-down control is unclear. Here, we show a direct contribution of prefrontal attention selection mechanisms to a continuous space exploration. Specifically, we provide a direct high spatio-temporal resolution prefrontal population decoding of the covert attentional spotlight. We show that it continuously explores space at a 7-12 Hz rhythm. Sensory encoding and behavioral reports are increased at a specific optimal phase w/ to this rhythm. We propose that this prefrontal neuronal rhythm reflects an alpha-clocked sampling of the visual environment in the absence of eye movements. These attentional explorations are highly flexible, how they spatially unfold depending both on within-trial and across-task contingencies. These results are discussed in the context of exploration-exploitation strategies and prefrontal top-down attentional control.

中文翻译：

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前额注意扫视节奏地探索太空。

最近的研究表明，注意力采样是通过额顶网络中的振荡相互作用来有节奏地进行间隔。这些注意力波动如何与自上而下控制下的动态注意力聚光灯如何与空间探索/位移和开发/选择相吻合。在这里，我们显示了前额注意力选择机制对持续太空探索的直接贡献。具体来说，我们提供了隐蔽注意聚光灯的直接高时空分辨率前额种群解码。我们显示它以7-12 Hz的节奏不断探索空间。感官编码和行为报告在特定的最佳相位w /上增加到此节奏。我们建议这种前额叶神经节律反映了在没有眼球运动的情况下视觉环境的alpha时钟采样。这些关注的探索具有高度的灵活性，它们在空间上的展开方式取决于试验内和跨任务的意外情况。这些结果将在勘探开发策略和前额自上而下的注意控制的背景下进行讨论。