title: Superior parietal cortex and the attention to delayed intention: An rTMS study.
abstract: Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to remember to carry out an intention when the appropriate cue occurs. This study aimed to investigate whether the superior parietal cortex is causally involved in PM and, if so, what is its functional role. We applied repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to the left and right superior parietal cortex, and we evaluated the TMS effects on two different PM tasks that required to direct the attention towards either the external stimuli ('Monitoring-load' task) or the intention in memory ('Retrospective-load' task). rTMS of left parietal cortex produced a facilitation of PM performance in both tasks. This was coupled by slower responses to the ongoing activity, for left and right parietal stimulation, but selectively in the 'Retrospective-load' condition. The present results suggest that superior parietal cortex is causally involved in biasing top-down attentional resources between the external, ongoing stimuli and the internal, PM intentions. The possible physiological mechanisms underlying the TMS-related improvement in PM performance are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Padua, via Giustiniani 5, 35128 Padua, Italy. Electronic address: giorgia.cona@unipd.it.
authors.forename: Giorgia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cona
authors.affiliation: Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, via Venezia 8, 35131 Padua, Italy. Electronic address: giuliana.m.89@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Giuliana
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Marino
authors.affiliation: Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, via Venezia 8, 35131 Padua, Italy. Electronic address: patrizia.bisiacchi@unipd.it.
authors.forename: Patrizia Silvia
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Bisiacchi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attention; Bottom-up; Intentions; Monitoring; Parietal; Prospective memory; Superior parietal cortex; TMS; Top-down; Transcranial magnetic stimulation