Involvement of the dorsal and ventral attention networks in visual attention span

Visual attention span (VAS), which refers to the window size of multielement parallel processing in a short time, plays an important role in higher-level cognition (e.g., reading) as required by encoding large amounts of information input. However, it is still a matter of debate about the underlying neural mechanism of VAS. In the present study, a modified visual 1-back task was designed by using nonverbal stimuli and nonverbal responses, in which possible influences of target presence and position were considered to identify more pure VAS processing. A task-driven functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment was then performed, and 30 healthy adults participated in this study. Results of confirmatory and exploratory analyses consistently revealed that both dorsal attention network (DAN) and ventral attention network (VAN) were significantly activated during this visual simultaneous processing. In particular, more significant activation in the left superior parietal lobule (LSPL), as compared to that in the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFGs), suggested a greater involvement of DAN in VAS-related processing in contrast to VAN. In addition, it was also found that the activation in temporoparietal junctions (TPJs) were suppressed during multielement processing only in the target-absent condition. The current results suggested the recruitment of LSPL in covert attentional shifts and top-down control of VAS resources distribution during the rapid visual simultaneous processing, as well as the involvement of bilateral IFGs (especially RIFG) in both VAS processing and inhibitory control. The present findings might bring some enlightenments for diagnosis of the atypicality of attentional disorders and reading difficulties.