Right temporal-parietal junction engagement during spatial reorienting does not depend on strategic attention control

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuroimaging
• Attention Research

Background:

• The right temporal-parietal junction (rTPJ) is typically activated by stimulus-driven spatial reorienting.
• Previous fMRI studies suggested rTPJ activation occurs only when attention shifts between task-relevant locations.
• This implied rTPJ's role in reorienting is limited to task-dependent attentional shifts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether task-irrelevant, non-predictive cues can influence rTPJ activity.
• To determine if cue-target feature relevance modulates rTPJ engagement.
• To challenge the existing view on the specific conditions for rTPJ activation in reorienting.

Main Methods:

• Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed.
• Participants performed a task involving peripheral, non-predictive cues and targets.
• Cue-target relevance was manipulated by sharing features between cue and target.

Main Results:

• Non-predictive peripheral cues activated the rTPJ when they shared features with the target (set-relevant).
• Trials with set-relevant cues and targets on the unattended side showed slower reaction times.
• Selective activation of the rTPJ was observed under these specific set-relevant cueing conditions.

Conclusions:

• The right temporal-parietal junction (rTPJ) is involved in reorienting beyond shifts between task-relevant locations.
• rTPJ engages when non-predictive cues are set-relevant, irrespective of voluntary attention.
• Findings indicate rTPJ's broader role in processing salient, task-relevant peripheral information.