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Contribution Details

Type Journal Article
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title Parietal stimulation decouples spatial and feature-based attention
Organization Unit
Authors
  • B Schenkluhn
  • Christian Ruff
  • K Heinen
  • C D Chambers
Item Subtype Original Work
Refereed Yes
Status Published in final form
Language
  • English
Journal Title Journal of Neuroscience
Publisher Society for Neuroscience
Geographical Reach international
ISSN 0270-6474
Volume 28
Number 44
Page Range 11106 - 11110
Date 2008
Abstract Text Everyday visual scenes contain a vast quantity of information, only a fraction of which can guide our behavior. Properties such as the location, color and orientation of stimuli help us extract relevant information from complex scenes (Treisman and Gelade, 1980; Livingstone and Hubel, 1987). But how does the brain coordinate the selection of such different stimulus characteristics? Neuroimaging studies have revealed significant regions of overlapping activity in frontoparietal cortex during attention to locations and features, suggesting a global component to visual selection (Vandenberghe et al., 2001; Corbetta and Shulman, 2002; Giesbrecht et al., 2003; Slagter et al., 2007). At the same time, the neural consequences of spatial and feature-based attention differ markedly in early visual areas (Treue and Martinez-Trujillo, 2007), implying that selection may rely on more specific top-down processes. Here we probed the balance between specialized and generalized control by interrupting preparatory attention in the human parietal cortex with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). We found that stimulation of the supramarginal gyrus (SMG) impaired spatial attention only, whereas TMS of the anterior intraparietal sulcus (aIPS) disrupted spatial and feature-based attention. The selection of different stimulus characteristics is thus mediated by distinct top-down mechanisms, which can be decoupled by cortical interference.
Free access at PubMed ID
Digital Object Identifier 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3591-08.2008
PubMed ID 18971453
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