Contributions of the human pulvinar to linking vision and action.
In 3 patients with unilateral pulvinar lesions, we tested the pulvinar's role in selective attention processing. Each patient completed four variants of a flanker interference task in which they reported the color of a square of a specified size while ignoring an irrelevant flanker that appeared either contralesionally or ipsilesionally to the target. The main finding was that when target location was not known and target and flanker were associated with competing responses, reaction times to contralesional targets were longer than those to ipsilesional targets. Our findings suggest that pulvinar damage produces a contralesional deficit in response competition.
Danziger
Shai
S
Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel. shaidanz@bgumail.bgu.ac.il
Ward
Robert
R
Owen
Vanessa
V
Rafal
Robert
R
D001288:Attention; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D020299:Intracranial Hemorrhage, Hypertensive / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009048:Motor Skills; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D020649:Pulvinar / Q000293:injuries / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D014794:Visual Fields; D014796:Visual Perception