title: A frontal attention mechanism in the visual mismatch negativity.
abstract: Automatic detection of environmental change is a core component of attention. The mismatch negativity (MMN), an electrophysiological marker of this mechanism, has been studied prominently in the auditory domain, with cortical generators identified in temporal and frontal regions. Here, we combined electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess whether the underlying frontal regions associated with auditory change detection also play a role in visual change detection. Twenty healthy young adults completed a visual MMN task in separate EEG and fMRI sessions. Region of interest analyses were conducted on left and right middle frontal (MFG) and inferior frontal (IFG) gyri, i.e., the frontal areas identified as potential auditory MMN generators. A significant increase in activation was observed in the left IFG and MFG in response to blocks containing deviant stimuli. These findings suggest that a frontal mechanism is involved in the detection of change in the visual MMN. Our results support the notion that frontal mechanisms underlie attention switching, as measured via MMN, across multiple modalities.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Cardiff University, UK; School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, UK. Electronic address: HedgeC@cardiff.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hedge
authors.affiliation: School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stothart
authors.affiliation: School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: Jenna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Todd Jones
authors.affiliation: School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: Priscila
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rojas Frías
authors.affiliation: School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: Kristopher Lundy
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Magee
authors.affiliation: School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, UK; Clinical Research and Imaging Centre, University of Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: Jonathan C W
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Brooks
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: Attention; Inferior frontal gyrus; Mismatch negativity; Visual attention; vMMN