The control of overt and covert attention across two nodes of the attention-control network

Author:

Polosecki PabloORCID,Steenrod Sara C.,Stemmann Heiko,Freiwald Winrich A.

Abstract

ABSTRACTAttention is a central cognitive capability whose focus is thought to be directed by a spatial map coding behavioral priority. Here we tested the three defining properties of priority map theory with electrophysiological recordings from two attentional control areas. Both areas, lateral intraparietal area LIP and dorsal posterior inferotemporal cortex PITd, selected behaviorally relevant locations even in the absence of visual stimuli (cognitive sustainment principle). Second, priority signals are thought to arise from the summation of multiple spatial signals (superposition principle). LIP approximated linear summation for visual stimuli, spatial attention, and eye movements, while PITd did not. Third, the same priority signal should guide different behaviors (agnosticity principle). LIP, instead, used separable processing channels for representing attentional focus and eye position, while PITd coded attentional focus only. Thus primate attentional control circuits implement multiple priority maps, whose functional diversity and dimensionality increase the computational capacity of attentional selection.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTA central theory of attention poses that the brain computes a priority map to highlight spatial locations of relevance for behavior. Here we tested the hypothesis and its key predictions about how priority signals are assembled and used, through electrophysiological single-unit recordings from two nodes of the attention control network, localized by functional magnetic resonance imaging. We found both areas to highlight locations even in the absence of a stimulus, and that each assembled spatial signals differently and provided spatial information in different forms. These findings force a revision of how and where spatial attention is controlled in the brain.

Publisher

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3