Spatiotemporal dynamics of attentional orienting and reorienting revealed by fast optical imaging

This study provides new findings about the characterization of the neural spatio-temporal dynamics of attentional processes, by employing event-related optical signal (EROS) along with Granger causality. This combined approach allowed us to trace the time-course of brain activations of cortical regions engaged in endogenous orienting and reorienting processes, highlighting different causal roles played by dorsal, ventral and visual areas in visuospatial attention. Our results suggest a causal activation pattern comprising dorsal and visual regions both in orienting and reorienting, adding to the latter process the involvement of ventral areas which exhibit a post perceptual function

本研究借助事件相关光学信号（event-related optical signal, EROS）与格兰杰因果关系（Granger causality）相结合的研究范式，针对注意过程的神经时空动态特征表征提供了全新发现。该联合分析方法得以追踪内源性定向与重新定向过程所涉及的大脑皮层区域的脑激活时间进程，揭示了背侧、腹侧与视觉皮层区域在视觉空间注意中发挥的不同因果作用。本研究结果表明，在定向与重新定向过程中均存在背侧与视觉区域的因果激活模式，而重新定向过程额外涉及腹侧区域，该类腹侧区域呈现出知觉后功能特性。