Effects of feature and spatial attention on visual change detection

In event-related brain potential studies using a visual S1–S2 matching task, stimulus changes elicit change-related positivity, which reflects the detection of visual changes. To investigate the effects of attention on change detection, we tested the elicitation of change-related positivity in response to changes in color and spatial frequency under three attention conditions(i) changes in an unattended feature at an attended location, (ii) in an attended feature at an unattended location, and (iii) in an unattended feature at an unattended location. The results suggest that stimulus changes can be detected even when both feature and spatial attention are withdrawn, but change detection can also be inhibited, which might be because of biased-competition determined by the combination of feature and spatial attention conditions.