Not logged in.

Contribution Details

Type Journal Article
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title Hemispheric differences in frontal and parietal influences on human occipital cortex: direct confirmation with concurrent TMS-fMRI
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Christian Ruff
  • F Blankenburg
  • O Bjoertomt
  • S Bestmann
  • N Weiskopf
  • J Driver
Item Subtype Original Work
Refereed Yes
Status Published in final form
Language
  • English
Journal Title Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Publisher MIT Press
Geographical Reach international
ISSN 0898-929X
Volume 21
Number 6
Page Range 1146 - 1161
Date 2009
Abstract Text We used concurrent TMS-fMRI to test directly for hemispheric differences in causal influences of the right or left fronto-parietal cortex on activity (BOLD signal) in the human occipital cortex. Clinical data and some behavioral TMS studies have been taken to suggest right-hemisphere specialization for top-down modulation of vision in humans, based on deficits such as spatial neglect or extinction in lesioned patients, or findings that TMS to right (vs. left) fronto-parietal structures can elicit stronger effects on visual performance. But prior to the recent advent of concurrent TMS and neuroimaging, it was not possible to directly examine the causal impact of one (stimulated) brain region upon others in humans. Here we stimulated the frontal or intraparietal cortex in the left or right hemisphere with TMS, inside an MR scanner, while measuring with fMRI any resulting BOLD signal changes in visual areas V1-V4 and V5/MT+. For both frontal and parietal stimulation, we found clear differences between effects of right- versus left-hemisphere TMS on activity in the visual cortex, with all differences significant in direct statistical comparisons. Frontal TMS over either hemisphere elicited similar BOLD decreases for central visual field representations in V1-V4, but only right frontal TMS led to BOLD increases for peripheral field representations in these regions. Hemispheric differences for effects of parietal TMS were even more marked: Right parietal TMS led to strong BOLD changes in V1-V4 and V5/MT+, but left parietal TMS did not. These data directly confirm that the human frontal and parietal cortex show right-hemisphere specialization for causal influences on the visual cortex.
Free access at PubMed ID
Digital Object Identifier 10.1162/jocn.2009.21097
PubMed ID 18752395
PDF File Download from ZORA
Export BibTeX
EP3 XML (ZORA)
Additional Information Copyright: MIT Press