Temporal dynamics of lateralized ERP components elicited during endogenous attentional shifts to relevant tactile events.

Full Abstract

To investigate the temporal dynamics of lateralized event-related brain potential (ERP) components elicited during covert shifts of spatial attention, ERPs were recorded in a task where central visual symbolic cues instructed participants to direct attention to their left or right hand in order to detect infrequent tactile targets presented to that hand, and to ignore tactile stimuli presented to the other hand, as well as all randomly intermingled peripheral visual stimuli. In different blocks, the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between cue and target was 300 ms, 700 ms, or 1,100 ms. Anterior and posterior ERP modulations sensitive to the direction of an attentional shift were time-locked to the attentional cue, rather than to the anticipated arrival of a task-relevant stimulus. These components thus appear to reflect central attentional control rather than the anticipatory preparation of sensory areas. In addition, attentional modulations of ERPs to task-irrelevant visual stimuli were found, providing further evidence for crossmodal links in spatial attention between touch and vision.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: van Velzen, José (J); Forster, Bettina (B); Eimer, Martin (M);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

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

Reference: 2002-Nov; vol 39 (issue 6) : pp 874-8

Dates: Created 2002/12/03; Completed 2003/02/10; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 12462516, 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
Cerebral Cortex - physiology
Cues
Dominance, Cerebral - physiology
Electroencephalography
Evoked Potentials - physiology
Female

Female
Functional Laterality - physiology
Humans
Male
Orientation - physiology
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Probability Learning
Reaction Time - physiology
Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
Touch - physiology

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.