Right temporal-parietal junction engagement during spatial reorienting does not depend on strategic attention control.
Targets presented outside the focus of attention trigger stimulus-driven spatial reorienting and activation of the right temporal-parietal junction (rTPJ). However, event-related functional resonance imaging (fMRI) studies that used task-irrelevant non-predictive cues systematically failed to activate rTPJ, suggesting that this region controls reorienting only when attention is shifted between two task-relevant locations. Here we challenge this view showing that non-predictive peripheral cues can affect activity in rTPJ, but only when they share a feature with the target: i.e. when they are set-relevant. Trials including a set-relevant cue plus a target on the uncued/unattended side produced the slowest reaction times and selective activation of the rTPJ. These findings demonstrate that rTPJ is not involved only in reorienting between two task-relevant locations, but engages also when non-predictive cues are set-relevant, thereby, irrespective of voluntary attention and breaches of task-related expectations.
Natale
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Neuroimaging Laboratory, Fondazione Santa Lucia, Roma, Italy. elena.natale@univr.it
Marzi
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CA
Macaluso
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D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology