Research ReportValue-driven attentional priority signals in human basal ganglia and visual cortex

•Stimuli previously associated with reward were presented as irrelevant distracters.•The distractors involuntarily captured attention, slowing target identification.•The distractors evoked elevated signals in basal ganglia and visual cortex.•The findings reveal the neural correlates of value-driven attentional capture.

Goal-directed and stimulus-driven factors determine attentional priority through a well defined dorsal frontal-parietal and ventral temporal-parietal network of brain regions, respectively. Recent evidence demonstrates that reward-related stimuli also have high attentional priority, independent of their physical salience and goal-relevance. The neural mechanisms underlying such value-driven attentional control are unknown. Using human functional magnetic resonance imaging, we demonstrate that the tail of the caudate nucleus and extrastriate visual cortex respond preferentially to task-irrelevant but previously reward-associated objects, providing an attentional priority signal that is sensitive to reward history. The caudate tail has not been implicated in the control of goal-directed or stimulus-driven attention, but is well suited to mediate the value-driven control of attention. Our findings reveal the neural basis of value-based attentional priority.