Attentional Functions of Parietal and Frontal Cortex

A model of normal attentional function, based on the concept of competitive parallel processing, is used to compare attentional deficits following parietal and frontal lobe lesions. Measurements are obtained for visual processing speed, capacity of visual short-term memory (VSTM), spatial bias (bias...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. 1991) N.Y. 1991), 2005-10, Vol.15 (10), p.1469-1484
Main Authors: Peers, Polly V., Ludwig, Casimir J.H., Rorden, Chris, Cusack, Rhodri, Bonfiglioli, Claudia, Bundesen, Claus, Driver, Jon, Antoun, Nagui, Duncan, John
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustic Stimulation
Adult
Aged
attention
Attention - physiology
Auditory Perception - physiology
brain lesions
Brain Neoplasms - psychology
Cerebral Infarction - psychology
Choice Behavior - physiology
Discrimination (Psychology) - physiology
Female
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Memory, Short-Term - physiology
Middle Aged
Neuropsychological Tests
neuropsychology
Parietal Lobe - physiology
Perceptual Disorders - physiopathology
Photic Stimulation
Prefrontal Cortex - physiology
Reaction Time - physiology
Recognition (Psychology) - physiology
vision
Visual Perception - physiology
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Summary:A model of normal attentional function, based on the concept of competitive parallel processing, is used to compare attentional deficits following parietal and frontal lobe lesions. Measurements are obtained for visual processing speed, capacity of visual short-term memory (VSTM), spatial bias (bias to left or right hemifield) and top-down control (selective attention based on task relevance). The results show important differences, but also surprising similarities, in parietal and frontal lobe patients. For processing speed and VSTM, deficits are selectively associated with parietal lesions, in particular lesions of the temporoparietal junction. We discuss explanations based on either grey matter or white matter lesions. In striking contrast, measures of attentional weighting (spatial bias and top-down control) are predicted by simple lesion volume. We suggest that attentional weights reflect competition between broadly distributed object representations. Parietal and frontal mechanisms work together, both in weighting by location and weighting by task context.
ISSN:1047-3211
1460-2199
DOI:10.1093/cercor/bhi029