Role of the lateral prefrontal cortex in visual object-based selective attention.
We demonstrate that attention to object representations is vitally dependent on the prefrontal cortex. Object-based selective attention was compared in neurologic patients with unilateral damage to either the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) or the parietal cortex and in healthy controls. Our task required a top-down attentional modulation of object representations in which spatial location played no role. All groups could invoke top-down object-based selection, but the DLPFC patients showed a selective deficit when target stimuli were in the hemifield contralateral to the lesioned hemisphere. Our findings indicate that in the healthy brain, anterior cortical mechanisms are crucial for attending to object-centered representations, whereas posterior cortical mechanisms are necessary for attending to objects at locations in the visual scene.
Sinnett
Scott
S
Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2430 Campus Road, Gartley Hall 110, Honolulu, HI 96822-2294, USA. ssinnett@hawaii.edu
Snyder
Janice J
JJ
Kingstone
Alan
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D011930:Reaction Time; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*