“Don’t Look Down”: Alpha-Band Activity Reveals Selection Prior to Suppression of to-be-Ignored Locations

To examine behavioural and electrophysiological effects associated with the intentional suppression of spatial locations, a task was employed which cued to-be-ignored locations prior to stimulus presentation. Over three experiments, participants were faster to respond to targets when such stimuli were presented alongside salient distractors at cued locations compared to uncued locations. This distractor cueing benefit, however, was time dependent as it was only observed when sufficient time was provided between cue and target displays. Possibly underlying the distractor cueing benefit, hemispheric differences in alpha-band activity gradually emerged between cue and target displays in accordance with the position of cued locations. While it was expected that electrophysiological markers associated with reactive suppression would also be influenced by distractor cueing, this was not the case; only a late stage of effortful processing was affected. Further, findings were present to suggest that both endogenous and exogenous processes contributed to the distractor cueing benefit.M.A