Modality-Specific Control of Strategic Spatial Attention in Parietal Cortex (original) (raw)

the most challenging problems facing cognitive neuro-Victoria 3010 science (Macaluso and Driver, 2004). Evidence accumu-Australia lated from many sources suggests that the parietal cortex plays an important role in orienting attention. For over half a century, neuropsychological studies have Summary shown that lesions of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) cause unilateral neglect, in which patients exhibit a The neural basis of selective spatial attention presents pathological inattention to events that occur toward the a significant challenge to cognitive neuroscience. Recontralesional side of space (Critchley, 1953; Driver and cent neuroimaging studies have suggested that re-Mattingley, 1998; Driver and Vuilleumier, 2001). Studies gions of the parietal and temporal cortex constitute that have reversibly interfered with PPC activity in hua "supramodal" network that mediates goal-directed mans and animals have revealed similar deficits in covert attention in multiple sensory modalities. Here we used attention (Chambers et al., 2004; Hilgetag et al., 2001; transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to determine Mü ri et al., 2002; Rushworth et al., 2001; Wardak et which cortical subregions control strategic attention al., 2004). Specifically, these studies have shown that in vision and touch. Healthy observers undertook an cellular networks within the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), orienting task in which a central arrow cue predicted angular gyrus (AG), and supramarginal gyrus (SMG) are the location of a subsequent visual or somatosensory critical for attention shifts between visual stimuli in diftarget. To determine the attentional role of cortical ferent locations.