Direct evidence for attention-dependent influences of the frontal eye-fields on feature-responsive visual cortex

Heinen, K., Feredoes, E., Weiskopf, N., Ruff, C. C. and Driver, J. (2013) Direct evidence for attention-dependent influences of the frontal eye-fields on feature-responsive visual cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 24 (11). pp. 2815-2821. ISSN 1460-2199 doi: 10.1093/cercor/bht157

Abstract/Summary

Voluntary selective attention can prioritize different features in a visual scene. The frontal eye-fields (FEF) are one potential source of such feature-specific top-down signals, but causal evidence for influences on visual cortex (as was shown for "spatial" attention) has remained elusive. Here, we show that transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied to right FEF increased the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals in visual areas processing "target feature" but not in "distracter feature"-processing regions. TMS-induced BOLD signals increase in motion-responsive visual cortex (MT+) when motion was attended in a display with moving dots superimposed on face stimuli, but in face-responsive fusiform area (FFA) when faces were attended to. These TMS effects on BOLD signal in both regions were negatively related to performance (on the motion task), supporting the behavioral relevance of this pathway. Our findings provide new causal evidence for the human FEF in the control of nonspatial "feature"-based attention, mediated by dynamic influences on feature-specific visual cortex that vary with the currently attended property.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/33181
Identification Number/DOI	10.1093/cercor/bht157
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	No Reading authors. Back catalogue items Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology
Publisher	Oxford University Press
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