Right temporoparietal junction activation by a salient contextual cue facilitates target discrimination.
The right temporoparietal junction (R TPJ) is involved in stimulus-driven attentional control in response to the appearance of an unexpected target or a distractor that shares features with a task-relevant target. An unresolved question is whether these responses in R TPJ are due simply to the presence of a stimulus that is a potential target, or instead responds to any task-relevant information. Here, we addressed this issue by testing the sensitivity of R TPJ to a perceptually salient, non-target stimulus - a contextual cue. Although known to be a non-target, the contextual cue carried probabilistic information regarding the presence of a target in the opposite visual field. The contextual cue was therefore always of potential behavioral relevance, but only sometimes paired with a target. The appearance of the contextual cue alone increased activation in R TPJ, but more so when it appeared with a target. There was also greater connectivity between R TPJ and a network of attentional control and decision areas when the contextual cue was present. These results demonstrate that R TPJ is involved in the stimulus-driven representation of task-relevant information that can be used to engage an appropriate behavioral response.
Geng
Joy J
JJ
Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95618, USA. jgeng@ucdavis.edu
Mangun
George R
GR
D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D003463:Cues; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D018579:Patient Selection; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology; D011603:Psychophysiology / Q000379:methods; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*