Degraded neural representations foreshadow failures of sustained attention
- 1The University of Chicago
Abstract
Attention prioritizes relevant information from the environment, but does not do so consistently over time. Instead, we sometimes experience poor attentional states which are characterized by a higher degree of performance failures, or "lapses." The source of these lapses--whether they arise from attentional disengagement, failures of attentional selection, or simply failures of response control--is not clear. This study tests whether the strength of neural representations differs as a function of both attentional selection and modulation over time. We recorded electroencephalography (EEG) data while participants performed a sustained attention task requiring the selection of task-relevant items and withholding of responses to rare targets. Results show that relevant items receive prioritized processing in brain signals, as measured with EEG decoding. Yet, their neural representational fidelity weakens under poor sustained attentional states, foreshadowing upcoming behavioral failures. These findings support a neural basis of disengagement during poor attentional states, suggesting that lapses may arise from a decoupling of brain activity from task processing. Finally, pre-item representational strength predicted memory success for targets, suggesting that neural fidelity indexes an encoding-ready state. Results suggest that the quality of neural representations is affected by ongoing attention and plays a key role in processing and memory.
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BibTeX
@misc{corriveau2026degraded,
title = {{Degraded neural representations foreshadow failures of sustained attention}},
author = {A. Corriveau and D. Tian and M. Chidharom and E. K. Vogel and M. D. Rosenberg},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.21.753248},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.21.753248v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Degraded neural representations foreshadow failures of sustained attention
AU - A. Corriveau
AU - D. Tian
AU - M. Chidharom
AU - E. K. Vogel
AU - M. D. Rosenberg
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/21
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.21.753248
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.21.753248v1
AB - Attention prioritizes relevant information from the environment, but does not do so consistently over time. Instead, we sometimes experience poor attentional states which are characterized by a higher degree of performance failures, or "lapses." The source of these lapses--whether they arise from attentional disengagement, failures of attentional selection, or simply failures of response control--is not clear. This study tests whether the strength of neural representations differs as a function of both attentional selection and modulation over time. We recorded electroencephalography (EEG) data while participants performed a sustained attention task requiring the selection of task-relevant items and withholding of responses to rare targets. Results show that relevant items receive prioritized processing in brain signals, as measured with EEG decoding. Yet, their neural representational fidelity weakens under poor sustained attentional states, foreshadowing upcoming behavioral failures. These findings support a neural basis of disengagement during poor attentional states, suggesting that lapses may arise from a decoupling of brain activity from task processing. Finally, pre-item representational strength predicted memory success for targets, suggesting that neural fidelity indexes an encoding-ready state. Results suggest that the quality of neural representations is affected by ongoing attention and plays a key role in processing and memory.
ER -