Common neural substrates for the control and effects of visual attention and perceptual bistability

Behavioral studies have suggested that bistable figure perception is mediated by spatial attention. We tested this hypothesis using event-related functional MRI. During central fixation, two tilted squares containing coherently moving dots were presented in the left and right hemifields. In the attention condition, participants were occasionally cued to shift attention between the squares. In the perception condition, corresponding corners of the squares were connected by horizontal lines producing a perceptually bistable Necker cube figure. Observers reported which of the two faces appeared 'forward' in depth; cues elicited voluntary perceptual reversals. Attending to either square during the attention condition or perceiving either square as forward during the perception condition yielded increased activity in contralateral visual areas. Furthermore, voluntary shifts of attention and voluntary shifts in perceptual configuration were associated with common activity in the posterior parietal cortex, part of the frontoparietal attentional control network. These results support the hypothesis that voluntary shifts in perceptual bistability are mediated by spatial attention.