TY - JOUR
T1 - Role of inferior frontal junction (ifj) in the control of feature versus spatial attention
AU - Meyyappan, Sreenivasan
AU - Rajan, Abhijit
AU - Mangun, George R.
AU - Ding, Mingzhou
N1 - Funding Information:
Received Nov. 13, 2020; revised July 26, 2021; accepted Aug. 2, 2021. Author contributions: S.M., G.R.M., and M.D. designed research; S.M. and A.R. performed research; S.M. and A.R. analyzed data; S.M., G.R.M., and M.D. wrote the paper. The authors declare no competing financial interests. This work was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH117991 to G.R.M. and M.D. All data will be publicly available on the National Institute of Mental Health Data Archive. Correspondence should be addressed to Mingzhou Ding at mding@bme.ufl.edu or George R. Mangun at mangun@ucdavis.edu. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2883-20.2021 Copyright © 2021 the authors
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Society for Neuroscience. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/9/22
Y1 - 2021/9/22
N2 - Feature-based visual attention refers to preferential selection and processing of visual stimuli based on their nonspatial attributes, such as color or shape. Recent studies have highlighted the inferior frontal junction (IFJ) as a control region for feature but not spatial attention. However, the extent to which IFJ contributes to spatial versus feature attention control remains a topic of debate. We investigated in humans of both sexes the role of IFJ in the control of feature versus spatial attention in a cued visual spatial (attend-left or attend-right) and feature (attend-red or attend-green) attention task using fMRI. Analyzing cue-related fMRI using both univariate activation and multivoxel pattern analysis, we found the following results in IFJ. First, in line with some prior studies, the univariate activations were not different between feature and spatial attentional control. Second, in contrast, the multivoxel pattern analysis decoding accuracy was above chance level for feature attention (attend-red vs attend-green) but not for spatial attention (attend-left vs attend-right). Third, while the decoding accuracy for feature attention was above chance level during attentional control in the cue-to-target interval, it was not during target processing. Fourth, the right IFJ and visual cortex (V4) were observed to be functionally connected during feature but not during spatial attention control, and this functional connectivity was positively associated with subsequent attentional selection of targets in V4, as well as with behavioral performance. These results support a model in which IFJ plays a crucial role in topdown control of visual feature but not visual spatial attention.
AB - Feature-based visual attention refers to preferential selection and processing of visual stimuli based on their nonspatial attributes, such as color or shape. Recent studies have highlighted the inferior frontal junction (IFJ) as a control region for feature but not spatial attention. However, the extent to which IFJ contributes to spatial versus feature attention control remains a topic of debate. We investigated in humans of both sexes the role of IFJ in the control of feature versus spatial attention in a cued visual spatial (attend-left or attend-right) and feature (attend-red or attend-green) attention task using fMRI. Analyzing cue-related fMRI using both univariate activation and multivoxel pattern analysis, we found the following results in IFJ. First, in line with some prior studies, the univariate activations were not different between feature and spatial attentional control. Second, in contrast, the multivoxel pattern analysis decoding accuracy was above chance level for feature attention (attend-red vs attend-green) but not for spatial attention (attend-left vs attend-right). Third, while the decoding accuracy for feature attention was above chance level during attentional control in the cue-to-target interval, it was not during target processing. Fourth, the right IFJ and visual cortex (V4) were observed to be functionally connected during feature but not during spatial attention control, and this functional connectivity was positively associated with subsequent attentional selection of targets in V4, as well as with behavioral performance. These results support a model in which IFJ plays a crucial role in topdown control of visual feature but not visual spatial attention.
KW - Feature attention
KW - FMRI
KW - Inferior frontal junction
KW - MVPA
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U2 - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2883-20.2021
DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2883-20.2021
M3 - Article
C2 - 34380762
AN - SCOPUS:85115787742
VL - 41
SP - 8065
EP - 8074
JO - Journal of Neuroscience
JF - Journal of Neuroscience
SN - 0270-6474
IS - 38
ER -