A cortical zoom-in operation underlies covert shifts of visual spatial attention

Shifting the focus of attention without moving the eyes poses challenges for signal coding in visual cortex in terms of spatial resolution, signal routing, and cross-talk. Little is known how these problems are solved during focus shifts. Here, we analyze the spatiotemporal dynamic of neuromagnetic activity in human visual cortex as a function of the size and number of focus shifts in visual search. We find that large shifts elicit activity modulations progressing from highest (IT) through mid-level (V4) to lowest hierarchical levels (V1). Smaller shifts cause those modulations to start at lower levels in the hierarchy. Successive shifts involve repeated backward progressions through the hierarchy. We conclude that covert focus shifts arise from a cortical coarse-to-fine process progressing from retinotopic areas with larger toward areas with smaller receptive fields. This process localizes the target and increases the spatial resolution of selection, which resolves the above issues of cortical coding.