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J Neurophysiol (June 11, 2008). doi:10.1152/jn.00030.2008
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Submitted on January 9, 2008
Accepted on June 3, 2008

Independence of anticipatory signals for spatial attention from number of non-target stimuli in the visual field

Carlo Sestieri1, Chad M Sylvester2, Anthony I Jack3, Giovanni d'Avossa4, Gordon L Shulman5, and Maurizio Corbetta6*

1 Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis - School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, United States; Department of Clinical Sciences and Bioimaging, Universita G. d'Annunzio, Chieti, Chieti, Italy
2 Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis - School of Medicine, 4525 Scott Avenue, St Louis, Missouri, 63110, United States
3 Neurology, Washington University in St Louis - School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri, United States; Neurology, Washington University in St Louis, 4525 Scott Ave., St Louis, Missouri, 63110, United States; Cognitive Science, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States
4 Neurology, Washington University in St Louis - School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri, United States; Neurology, Washington University in St Louis, 4525 Scott Ave., St Louis, Missouri, 63110, United States; Psychology, Bangor Imaging Unit, Bangor University, Bangor, gwynedd, United Kingdom
5 Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis - School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, United States
6 Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis - School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, United States; Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis - School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, United States; Anatomy & Neurobiology, Washington University in St. Louis - School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, United States; Department of Clinical Sciences and Bioimaging, Universita G. d'Annunzio, Chieti, Chieti, Italy

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mau{at}npg.wustl.edu.

Covertly attending to a location modulates the activity of visual areas even in the absence of visual stimulation. These effects are widespread, being found in the cortical representations of both attended and unattended portions of the visual field. It is not clear, however, if preparatory modulations depend on subjects expectation regarding the presence of additional non-target stimuli in the visual field . Here, we asked subjects to direct endogenously attention to a peripheral location in the upper visual field to identify the orientation of a low-contrast target stimulus, and manipulated the number and behavioral relevance of other low-contrast non-target stimuli in the visual field. Anticipatory, i.e. pre-stimulus, BOLD signal increments in visual cortex were strongest at the contralateral attended location, while signal decrements were strongest at the unattended mirror-opposite ipsilateral location/region of visual cortex. Importantly, these strong anticipatory decrements were not related to the presence/absence of non-target low contrast stimuli, and did not correlate with either weaker target-evoked responses or worse performance. Secondly, the presence of other low contrast stimuli in the visual field, even when potential targets, did not modify the anticipatory signal modulation either at target or non-target locations. We conclude that the topography of spatial attention-related anticipatory BOLD signal modulation across visual cortex, specifically decrements at unattended locations, is mainly determined by processes at the cued location and not by the number or behavioral relevance of distant low contrast non-target stimuli elsewhere in the visual field.




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