Skip to main content

Shifting Attentional Priorities: Control of Spatial Attention through Hemispheric Competition

Author(s): Szczepanski, Sara M.; Kastner, Sabine

Download
To refer to this page use: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/pr10n1b
Full metadata record
DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorSzczepanski, Sara M.-
dc.contributor.authorKastner, Sabine-
dc.date.accessioned2019-10-28T15:54:11Z-
dc.date.available2019-10-28T15:54:11Z-
dc.date.issued2013-03-20en_US
dc.identifier.citationSzczepanski, SM, Kastner, S. (2013). Shifting Attentional Priorities: Control of Spatial Attention through Hemispheric Competition. Journal of Neuroscience, 33 (12), 5411 - 5421. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4089-12.2013en_US
dc.identifier.issn0270-6474-
dc.identifier.urihttp://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/pr10n1b-
dc.description.abstractRegions of frontal and posterior parietal cortex are known to control the allocation of spatial attention across the visual field. However, the neural mechanisms underlying attentional control in the intact human brain remain unclear, with some studies supporting a hemispatial theory emphasizing a dominant function of the right hemisphere and others supporting an interhemispheric competition theory. We previously found neural evidence to support the latter account, in which topographically organized frontoparietal areas each generate a spatial bias, or “attentional weight,” toward the contralateral hemifield, with the sum of the weights constituting the overall bias that can be exerted across visual space. Here, we used a multimodal approach consisting of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of spatial attention signals, behavioral measures of spatial bias, and fMRI-guided single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to causally test this interhemispheric competition account. Across the group of fMRI subjects, we found substantial individual differences in the strengths of the frontoparietal attentional weights in each hemisphere, which predicted subjects’ respective behavioral preferences when allocating spatial attention, as measured by a landmark task. Using TMS to interfere with attentional processing within specific topographic frontoparietal areas, we then demonstrated that the attentional weights of individual subjects, and thus their spatial attention behavior, could be predictably shifted toward one visual field or the other, depending on the site of interference. The results of our multimodal approach, combined with an emphasis on neural and behavioral individual differences, provide compelling evidence that spatial attention is controlled through competitive interactions between hemispheres rather than a dominant right hemisphere in the intact human brain.en_US
dc.format.extent5411 - 5421en_US
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.relation.ispartofJournal of Neuroscienceen_US
dc.rightsAuthor's manuscripten_US
dc.titleShifting Attentional Priorities: Control of Spatial Attention through Hemispheric Competitionen_US
dc.typeJournal Articleen_US
dc.identifier.doidoi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4089-12.2013-
dc.date.eissued2013-03-20en_US
dc.identifier.eissn1529-2401-
pu.type.symplectichttp://www.symplectic.co.uk/publications/atom-terms/1.0/journal-articleen_US

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 
nihms458591.pdf1.96 MBAdobe PDFView/Download


Items in OAR@Princeton are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.