title: Value-driven attentional priority signals in human basal ganglia and visual cortex.
abstract: Goal-directed and stimulus-driven factors determine attentional priority through a well defined dorsal frontal-parietal and ventral temporal-parietal network of brain regions, respectively. Recent evidence demonstrates that reward-related stimuli also have high attentional priority, independent of their physical salience and goal-relevance. The neural mechanisms underlying such value-driven attentional control are unknown. Using human functional magnetic resonance imaging, we demonstrate that the tail of the caudate nucleus and extrastriate visual cortex respond preferentially to task-irrelevant but previously reward-associated objects, providing an attentional priority signal that is sensitive to reward history. The caudate tail has not been implicated in the control of goal-directed or stimulus-driven attention, but is well suited to mediate the value-driven control of attention. Our findings reveal the neural basis of value-based attentional priority.
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, United States. Electronic address: bander33@jhu.edu.
authors.forename: Brian A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, United States.
authors.forename: Patryk A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Laurent
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, United States.
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yantis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001070:Appetitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000502:physiology; D017352:Echo-Planar Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D012201:Reward; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attentional capture; Basal ganglia; Reward learning; Selective attention; fMRI