Too little, too late, and in the wrong place: Alpha band activity does not reflect an active mechanism of selective attention

Selective attention focuses visual processing on relevant stimuli in order to allow for adaptive behaviour despite an abundance of distracting information. It has been proposed that increases in alpha band (8–12 ​Hz) amplitude reflect an active mechanism for distractor suppression. If this were the case, increases in alpha band amplitude should be succeeded by a decrease in distractor processing. Surprisingly, this connection has not been tested...