Schedule of Events | Search Abstracts | Invited Symposia | Symposia | Poster Sessions | Data Blitz

Sketchpad Series 

Effects of Perceptual Load on Sustained Attention States

Poster Session D - Monday, March 9, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Rodolfo Solís-Vivanco¹ (), Louise Barne², Nilli Lavie³; ¹Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía, ²University of Cambridge, ³University College London

Perceptual load is known to enhance focused attention. Here we investigated whether perceptual load enhances or instead drains sustained attention, while using EEG to identify the associated neurophysiological correlates. 34 participants performed the gradual-onset-continuous-performance task, discriminating target (10% of trials) from non-target images that gradually transitioned to each other. Perceptual load was manipulated with image-overlaid salt-and-pepper mask. States of sustained attention were classified as “in-the-zone” or “out-of-the-zone” (±1SD or beyond ±1SD from the intra-subject mean, respectively). Both high (vs. low) perceptual load and out of-the-zone (vs. in-the-zone) states resulted in reduced accuracy, indicating increased attentional demand. In addition, the duration of in-the-zone states was shorter under high compared to low perceptual load. EEG results showed increased midfrontal theta power, and reduced parietal and occipital alpha power, during in-the-zone (vs. out-of-the-zone) states, and during conditions of high (vs. low) load. Additionally, an interaction of zone, load, and within-trial time, revealed that while the effect of perceptual load was found over the early period of new image (gradual) emergence, attentional-zone effects extended over a longer peri-transition period. These results suggest that sustaining attention under high perceptual load involves increased demands on midfrontal theta activity thought to reflect cognitive control and increased cortical excitability (seen with alpha suppression) at perception-critical time periods. While these were involved in sustaining in-the-zone states over a longer trial period. Together with the shortening of in-the-zone periods under high perceptual load, the results support a draining effect of perceptual load on sustained attention.

Topic Area: ATTENTION: Nonspatial