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We found that, in the presence of external noise, covert attention reduced the trial-by-trial BOLD response by 15.5\u201318.9% in low signal contrast conditions in V1. It also increased the BOLD dynamic range in V1, V2, V3, V3A\/B, and V4 by a factor of at least three. Overall, covert attention reduced the impact of external noise by about 73\u201385% in these early visual areas. It also increased the contrast gain by a factor of 2.6\u20133.8.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1162\/jocn.2010.21511","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2010,4,30]],"date-time":"2010-04-30T12:03:36Z","timestamp":1272629016000},"page":"1148-1159","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1162\/mitpressjournals.corrections.policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":27,"title":["Attention Extracts Signal in External Noise: A BOLD fMRI Study"],"prefix":"10.1162","volume":"23","author":[{"given":"Zhong-Lin","family":"Lu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"1University of Southern California, Los Angeles"}]},{"given":"Xiangrui","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"1University of Southern California, Los Angeles"}]},{"given":"Bosco S.","family":"Tjan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"1University of Southern California, Los Angeles"}]},{"given":"Barbara A.","family":"Dosher","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"2University 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