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Posterior parietal cortex controls spatial attention through modulation of anticipatory alpha rhythms

Paolo Capotosto¹, Claudio Babiloni², Gian Luca Romani¹, & Maurizio Corbetta³

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1. University G. D'Annunzio, Scienze Cliniche e Bioimmagini
2. University La Sapienza, Dipartimento di Fisiologia Umana e Farmacologia
3. Washington University School of Medicine, Dept. of Neurology, Radiology, Anatomy and Neurobiology

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Document Type:

Manuscript

Date:

Received 01 February 2008 13:23 UTC; Posted 01 February 2008

Subjects:

Neuroscience

Tags:

• Visuospatial attention
• frontal-parietal network
• visual cortex
• Alpha rhythms
• rTMS
• EEG

Abstract:

A dorsal fronto-parietal network, including regions in intra-parietal sulcus (IPS) and frontal eye field (FEF), has been hypothesized to control the allocation of spatial attention to environmental stimuli. One putative mechanism of control is the de-synchronization of electroencephalography (EEG) alpha rhythms (~8-12 Hz) in parieto-occipital cortex in anticipation of a visual target. We show that brief interference by transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) with preparatory activity in right IPS or right FEF while subjects attend to a spatial location impairs identification of target stimuli ~2 seconds later. Moreover, the visual deficit relates to the disruption of anticipatory (pre-stimulus) alpha desynchronization and its topography in parieto-occipital cortex. After right IPS stimulation, the degree to which alpha desynchronization is suppressed predicts the speed of visual identification. These results demonstrate the causal role of posterior parietal cortex in the control of visuo-spatial attention exerted through the synchronization of visual neurons.

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Alfredo Pereira Jr on 02 February 2008 00:38 UTC

Could spatial attention-related alpha desynchronization in parieto-occipital cortex be a transition to gamma re-synchronization of the same regions? Parietal gamma may support visually guided movements towards the attended location. In this case “paradoxical alpha synchronization” (i.e. magnetic stimulation enhancing alpha synchrony) is also the perturbation of gamma onset!
Alfredo Pereira Jr.
Admin. of “Brain Physiology, Cognition and Consciousness” NN Group

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This document is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

How to cite this document:

Capotosto, Paolo, Babiloni, Claudio, Romani, Gian Luca, and Corbetta, Maurizio. Posterior parietal cortex controls spatial attention through modulation of anticipatory alpha rhythms. Available from Nature Precedings <http://hdl.handle.net/10101/npre.2008.1563.1> (2008)

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