 |
| Research article summary (published 13 Jan 2002): |
|
Free Full Text! See links below |
Cerebellar involvement in response reassignment rather than attention.
Full Abstract
A number of functional hypotheses have recently been advanced to account for how the cerebellum may contribute to cognition. Neuropsychological studies suggest the cerebellum is involved in switching attentional set. We present evidence that fails to support this hypothesis. Rather, we propose that in such tasks, the cerebellum is involved with the remapping of response alternatives to different types of stimuli. In our experiment, participants fixated on the center of a screen onto which a random presentation of four visual stimuli was presented. The stimuli were grouped along two dimensions (color:
red square or blue square; shape:
white circle or white triangle). Participants were instructed to respond with a button press only to presented stimuli for a particular dimension (e.g., red squares), to switch between two dimensions (where the target on the attended dimension served both as a signal for a response and as an indicator to shift attention to the other dimension), or to switch attention between two dimensions but make an overt response only to targets on one of the dimensions. Using functional imaging, we identify areas of lateral cerebellar cortex that are recruited when subjects must reassign motor responses to different stimuli. Furthermore, we demonstrate that switching of attention between dimensions without a motor response does not produce stronger activation within the cerebellum compared with conditions involving response and attention to a single dimension. These results suggest the cerebellum is involved in response reassignment.
Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills
Author information
Author/s: Bischoff-Grethe, Amanda (A); Ivry, Richard B (RB); Grafton, Scott T (ST);
Affiliation: Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA.
Grants: NS33504 (Agency:United States NINDS)
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Clinical Trial; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
Journal: The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience (J Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2002-Jan; vol 22 (issue 2) : pp 546-53
Dates: Created 2002/01/10; Completed 2002/01/30; Revised 2007/11/14;
PMID: 11784801, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):
Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.
This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.
MeSH headings (categories)
This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.
|
|
Related articles
This article has not been indexed for related articles as yet, however you can still use the live related article search links below.
See a large map of 100+ related articles.