title: Attention to memory and the environment: functional specialization and dynamic competition in human posterior parietal cortex.
abstract: Posterior parietal cortex has been traditionally associated with perceptual attention and sensory-motor processing, but recent studies also indicate a potential role in episodic memory retrieval. Here, we developed a new paradigm to isolate top-down attention-related activity directed to either memory or perceptual information. We demonstrated a robust topographic separation in human posterior parietal cortex associated with searching for task-relevant information in episodic memory or in the environment. Control analyses confirmed that this difference was not dependent on differences in sensory stimulation or eye movements across tasks. Notably, we observed in memory- and perception-related regions a mechanism of reciprocal dynamic competition that was related to behavioral performance. These results provide the first evidence for a double dissociation between parietal networks involved in top-down attention to memory and the environment and support the idea of neural competition between perception and memory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, USA. c.sestieri@unich.it
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sestieri
authors.forename: Gordon L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Shulman
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Corbetta
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology