A large-scale distributed network for covert spatial attention: further anatomical delineation based on stringent behavioural and cognitive controls.

Publisher: Oxford University Press Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 0372537 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 0006-8950 (Print) Linking ISSN: 00068950 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Brain Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: Oxford : Oxford University Press
Original Publication: London.

Brain Mapping*; Attention/*physiology ; Cerebral Cortex/*physiology ; Space Perception/*physiology; Adult ; Cognition ; Cues ; Eye Movements ; Female ; Frontal Lobe/physiology ; Gyrus Cinguli/physiology ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods ; Male ; Parietal Lobe/physiology ; Reference Values ; Reproducibility of Results ; Temporal Lobe/physiology ; Visual Cortex/physiology

Functional MRI was used to examine cerebral activations in 12 subjects while they performed a spatial attention task. This study applied more stringent behavioural and cognitive controls than previously used for similar experiments: (i) subjects were included only if they showed evidence of attentional shifts while performing the task in the magnet; (ii) the experimental task and baseline condition were designed to eliminate the contributions of motor output, visual fixation, inhibition of eye movements, working memory and the conditional (no-go) component of responding. Activations were seen in all three hypothesized cortical epicentres forming a network for spatial attention: the lateral premotor cortex (frontal eye fields), the posterior parietal cortex and the cingulate cortex. Subcortical activations were seen in the basal ganglia and the thalamus. Although the task required attention to be equally shifted to the left and to the right, eight of 10 subjects showed a greater area of activation in the right parietal cortex, consistent with the specialization of the right hemisphere for spatial attention. Other areas of significant activation included the posterior temporo-occipital cortex and the anterior insula. The temporo-occipital activation was within a region broadly defined as MT+ (where MT is the middle temporal area) which contains the human equivalent of area MT in the macaque monkey. This temporo-occipital area appears to constitute a major component of the functional network activated by this spatial attention task. Its activation may reflect the 'inferred' shift of the attentional focus across the visual scene.

NS30863-04 United States NS NINDS NIH HHS; United Kingdom Wellcome Trust

Date Created: 19990604 Date Completed: 19990709 Latest Revision: 20190513

20231215

10.1093/brain/122.6.1093

10356062