%0 Journal Article
%T Activation of Right Ventral Prefrontal Cortex Using a Predictive Cue during Visual Spatial Orienting of Attentional Processes: An fMRI Study
%A Chunlin Li
%A Jinglong Wu
%J Neurology Research International
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/961342
%X Visual spatial orienting of attention can be investigated with location-cueing paradigms in which a cue provides correct information about the location of the upcoming target. Target detection is facilitated when the target appears at the expected cued location. In this study, we examined the brain activation of the spatial orienting response based on attentional ˇ°benefits.ˇ± During an fMRI experiment, two types of attentional tasks were used. Both predictive and nonpredictive cues were used and followed by an upcoming target. Behavioral data showed a faster reaction time with the predictive cue when compared with that of the nonpredictive cue. The fMRI results of these two tasks were compared, whereby isolated brain areas activated when the targets appeared at the attended position after a specific spatial expectation was induced by the cue were compared with when equivalent targets appeared after no spatial expectation was induced by the cue. The results showed that the right ventral prefrontal cortex was activated to a similar degree as the dorsal frontoparietal spatial attentional network. 1. Introduction The visual spatial orienting of attention experimental paradigm is a widely studied model that was first developed by Posner [1] for studying the covert visual spatial orienting of attention. In this paradigm, an arrow can usually be used as a cue and presented in the center of the visual field. When a cue is presented, it points left or right in order to provide a spatial hint for the upcoming target, whereby the participants can predict the location of a target and pay attention to that location voluntarily. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have discovered a dorsal frontoparietal network, which includes the inferior parietal lobe (IPL) and the frontal eye field (FEF), and this network is involved in visual spatial orienting of attention [2¨C4]. In these goal-directed attention paradigms (spatial endogenous orienting of attention paradigm), a visual cue is usually presented centrally and provides a spatial prediction of the upcoming target [5]. When a cue provides the spatial hint correctly, it is called valid cue. When a cue provides the wrong spatial hint, it is called an invalid cue. The percentage of valid cue counts is called validity. By using a predictive cue with 100% validity [5], that is, a central visual spatial cue that indicates the location of an upcoming peripheral target, stimulus detection is facilitated when the target appears at the expected (i.e., the validly cued) location. The difference in reaction times
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/nri/2012/961342/