The posterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex mediate the anticipatory allocation of spatial attention.

Full Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify brain regions underlying internally generated anticipatory biases toward locations where significant events are expected to occur. Subjects fixated centrally and responded to peripheral targets preceded by a spatially valid (predictive), invalid (misleading), or neutral central cue while undergoing fMRI scanning. In some validly cued trials, reaction time was significantly shorter than in trials with neutral cues, indicating that the cue had successfully induced a spatial redistribution of motivational valence, manifested as expectancy. The largest cue benefits led to selectively greater activations within the posterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex. These two areas thus appear to establish a neural interface between attention and motivation. An inverse relationship to cue benefit was seen in the parietal cortex, suggesting that spatial expectancy may entail the inhibition of attention-related areas to reduce distractibility by events at irrelevant locations.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Small, D M (DM); Gitelman, D R (DR); Gregory, M D (MD); Nobre, A C (AC); Parrish, T B (TB); Mesulam, M-M (MM);

Affiliation: Northwestern University Brain Mapping Group and Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center, Chicago, IL 60611, USA.

Grants: AG138541 (Agency:NIA NIH HHS) ; K23 AG000940-04 (Agency:NIA NIH HHS) ; K23 AG00940-02 (Agency:NIA NIH HHS) ; NS30863-03 (Agency:NINDS NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: NeuroImage (Neuroimage), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Mar; vol 18 (issue 3) : pp 633-41

Dates: Created 2003/04/01; Completed 2003/05/19; Revised 2008/07/10;

PMID: 12667840, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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.

Adult
Arousal - physiology
Attention - physiology
Brain Mapping - methods
Female
Gyrus Cinguli - physiology
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male

Motivation
Nerve Net - physiology
Orientation - physiology
Parietal Lobe - physiology
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Prefrontal Cortex - physiology
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Reaction Time - physiology
Set (Psychology)

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.