The deployment of visual attention in time: evidence from normal observers and brain-damaged patients

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The study of the Attentional blink phenomenon has revealed to be one of the most useful tool to get insights abount the temporal constraints that limit rapid shifts in attentional redeployment. We report the interesting finding that, both in normal observers and, to some extent, also in brain-damaged patients, the magnitude of the interference effect described in the Attentional Blink can be reduced by the concomitant presentation of a task-irrelevant auditory stimulation which is able to induce a better temporal segmentation of the visual sequence. this argues against the unavoidable nature of the Attentional Blink effect, suggesting that rather than a fundamental limitation of attentional selection in time, it could be considered as a failure in optimally organize a flux of rapid and brief events.