Our visual environment is complicated, and our cognitive capacity is limited. As a result, we must strategically ignore some stimuli to prioritize others. Common sense suggests that foreknowledge of distractor characteristics, like location or color, might help us ignore these objects. But empirical studies have provided mixed evidence, often showing that knowing about a distractor before it appears counterintuitively leads to its attentional selection. What has looked like strategic distractor suppression in the past is now commonly explained as a product of prior experience and implicit statistical learning, and the long-standing notion the distractor suppression is reflected in α band oscillatory brain activity has been challenged by results appearing to link α to target resolution. Can we strategically, proactively suppress distractors? And, if so, does this involve α? Here, we use the concurrent recording of human EEG and eye movements in optimized experimental designs to identify behavior and brain activity associated with proactive distractor suppression. Results from three experiments show that knowing about distractors before they appear causes a reduction in electrophysiological indices of covert attentional selection of these objects and a reduction in the overt deployment of the eyes to the location of the objects. This control is established before the distractor appears and is predicted by the power of cue-elicited α activity over the visual cortex. Foreknowledge of distractor characteristics therefore leads to improved selective control, and α oscillations in visual cortex reflect the implementation of this strategic, proactive mechanism.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT To behave adaptively and achieve goals we often need to ignore visual distraction. Is it easier to ignore distracting objects when we know more about them? We recorded eye movements and electrical brain activity to determine whether foreknowledge of distractor characteristics can be used to limit processing of these objects. Results show that knowing the location or color of a distractor stops us from attentionally selecting it. A neural signature of this inhibition emerges in oscillatory alpha band brain activity, and when this signal is strong, selective processing of the distractor decreases. Knowing about the characteristics of task-irrelevant distractors therefore increases our ability to focus on task-relevant information, in this way gating information processing in the brain.

我们的视觉环境是复杂的，我们的认知能力是有限的。因此，我们必须战略性地忽略某些刺激以优先考虑其他刺激。常识表明，对干扰物特征（如位置或颜色）的预知可能有助于我们忽略这些物体。但实证研究提供了混合证据，通常表明，在干扰因素出现违反直觉之前就对其进行了解会导致其注意力选择。过去看起来像策略性干扰抑制现在通常被解释为先验经验和隐性统计学习的产物，并且长期以来认为干扰抑制反映在 α 波段振荡大脑活动中的结果受到了似乎相关的结果的挑战α 为目标分辨率。我们能否战略性地、主动地抑制干扰因素？而且，如果是这样，这是否涉及 α？在这里，我们在优化的实验设计中使用人类 EEG 和眼球运动的并发记录来识别与主动干扰抑制相关的行为和大脑活动。三个实验的结果表明，在干扰物出现之前了解它们会导致对这些物体的隐蔽注意力选择的电生理指标减少，并减少眼睛对物体位置的公开部署。这种控制是在干扰物出现之前建立的，并通过视觉皮层上由线索引发的 α 活动的力量来预测。因此，对干扰特征的预知可以改善选择性控制，视觉皮层中的 α 振荡反映了这种战略性主动机制的实施。我们在优化的实验设计中使用人类 EEG 和眼球运动的并发记录来识别与主动干扰抑制相关的行为和大脑活动。三个实验的结果表明，在干扰物出现之前了解它们会导致对这些物体的隐蔽注意力选择的电生理指标减少，并减少眼睛对物体位置的公开部署。这种控制是在干扰物出现之前建立的，并通过视觉皮层上由线索引发的 α 活动的力量来预测。因此，对干扰特征的预知可以改善选择性控制，视觉皮层中的 α 振荡反映了这种战略性主动机制的实施。我们在优化的实验设计中使用人类 EEG 和眼球运动的并发记录来识别与主动干扰抑制相关的行为和大脑活动。三个实验的结果表明，在干扰物出现之前了解它们会导致对这些物体的隐蔽注意力选择的电生理指标减少，并减少眼睛对物体位置的公开部署。这种控制是在干扰物出现之前建立的，并通过视觉皮层上由线索引发的 α 活动的力量来预测。因此，对干扰特征的预知可以改善选择性控制，视觉皮层中的 α 振荡反映了这种战略性主动机制的实施。

重要性陈述为了适应行为并实现目标，我们经常需要忽略视觉干扰。当我们对它们了解得更多时，是否更容易忽略分散注意力的物体？我们记录了眼球运动和脑电活动，以确定是否可以使用对干扰特征的预知来限制对这些物体的处理。结果表明，知道干扰物的位置或颜色会阻止我们集中注意力选择它。这种抑制的神经特征出现在振荡的 α 波段大脑活动中，当这种信号很强时，干扰物的选择性处理就会减少。因此，了解与任务无关的干扰因素的特征可以提高我们专注于与任务相关的信息的能力，从而控制大脑中的信息处理。