Brain activation during spatial updating and attentive tracking of moving targets

• Published in: Brain and cognition 2012-03, Vol.78 (2), p.105-113
• Main Authors: Jahn, Georg, Wendt, Julia, Lotze, Martin, Papenmeier, Frank, Huff, Markus
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Anatomical correlates of behavior; Attention; Attention - physiology; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Brain - physiology; Correlation; Female; Functional MRI; Functional Neuroimaging; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Learning. Memory; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Memory; Memory, Short-Term - physiology; Motion Perception - physiology; Multiple object tracking; Neurology; Parietal cortex; Parietal Lobe - physiology; Photic Stimulation; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Retention (Psychology); Science Education; Short Term Memory; Space Perception - physiology; Spatial Ability; Spatial updating; Spatial working memory; Task Analysis; Visual attention; Visual Stimuli
• ISSN: 0278-2626; 1090-2147
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2011.12.001

► Attentive tracking results in a load-dependent BOLD-response in parietal cortex. ► Increasing tracking load revealed increasing activations in the IPS, SPL, and LOC. ► Targets temporarily invisible during viewpoint changes required spatial updating. ► Retention and updating produced load-dependent activations only in the precuneus. Keeping aware of the locations of objects while one is moving requires the updating of spatial representations. As long as the objects are visible, attentional tracking is sufficient, but knowing where objects out of view went in relation to one’s own body involves an updating of spatial working memory. Here, multiple object tracking was employed to study spatial updating and its neural correlates. In a dynamic 3D-scene, targets moved among visually indistinguishable distractors. The targets and distractors either stayed visible during continuous viewpoint changes or they turned invisible. The parametric variation of tracking load revealed load-dependent activations of the intraparietal sulcus, the superior parietal lobule, and the lateral occipital cortex in response to the attentive tracking task. Viewpoint changes with invisible objects that demanded retention and updating produced load-dependent activation only in the precuneus in line with its presumed involvement in updating spatial working memory.