title: Selective attentional enhancement and inhibition of fronto-posterior connectivity by the basal ganglia during attention switching.
abstract: The prefrontal cortex and the basal ganglia interact to selectively gate a desired action. Recent studies have shown that this selective gating mechanism of the basal ganglia extends to the domain of attention. Here, we investigate the nature of this action-like gating mechanism for attention using a spatial attention-switching paradigm in combination with functional neuroimaging and dynamic causal modeling. We show that the basal ganglia guide attention by focally releasing inhibition of task-relevant representations, while simultaneously inhibiting task-irrelevant representations by selectively modulating prefrontal top-down connections. These results strengthen and specify the role of the basal ganglia in attention. Moreover, our findings have implications for psychological theorizing by suggesting that inhibition of unattended sensory regions is not only a consequence of mutual suppression, but is an active process, subserved by the basal ganglia.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands Department of Psychiatry, Centre for Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Centre, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.
authors.forename: Martine R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: van Schouwenburg
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA.
authors.forename: Hanneke E M
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: den Ouden
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands Department of Psychiatry, Centre for Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Centre, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Roshan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cools
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008954:Models, Biological; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: DCM; fMRI; human; prefrontal cortex; striatum