Both dorsal and ventral attention network nodes are implicated in exogenously driven visuospatial anticipation

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Attention Research

Background:

• Dorsal fronto-parietal networks control endogenous attention, while ventral areas manage exogenous attention shifts.
• The interaction and overlap between these attention networks remain poorly understood.
• Previous research often confounded exogenous and endogenous attentional engagement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the roles of the dorsal and ventral attention networks in exogenous and endogenous attention.
• To determine if the right intraparietal sulcus (rIPS) and right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ) are independently involved in exogenous attention.

Main Methods:

• A cued target discrimination paradigm behaviorally dissociated exogenous and endogenous attention processes.
• Participants responded to endogenous cues while exogenous attention was guided by simultaneous apparent motion cues.
• Neuronavigated double-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied to rIPS or rTPJ, with sham-TMS as a control.

Main Results:

• Sham-TMS showed benefits for both endogenous and exogenous cueing on discrimination accuracy.
• TMS over rIPS and rTPJ abolished the benefits of exogenous cueing.
• Benefits from endogenous cueing remained unaffected by TMS over rIPS or rTPJ.

Conclusions:

• Findings challenge the notion of independent involvement of dorsal and ventral attention network nodes in exogenous attention.
• The study provides new insights into the neural mechanisms underlying attention control and interaction between attention networks.