Abstract
The contents of working memory (WM) can affect the subsequent visual search performance, resulting in either beneficial or cost effects, when the visual search target is included in or spatially dissociated from the memorized contents, respectively. The right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) and the right posterior parietal cortex (rPPC) have been suggested to be associated with the congruence/incongruence effects of the WM content and the visual search target. Thus, in the present study, we investigated the role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the PPC in controlling the interaction between WM and attention during a visual search, using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Subjects maintained a color in WM while performing a search task. The color cue contained the target (valid), the distractor (invalid) or did not reappear in the search display (neutral). Concurrent stimulation with the search onset showed that relative to rTMS over the vertex, rTMS over rPPC and rDLPFC further decreased the search reaction time, when the memory cue contained the search target. The results suggest that the rDLPFC and the rPPC are critical for controlling WM biases in human visual attention.
Highlights
Working memory (WM) plays a crucial role in the control of visual selection
A significant condition × transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) site interaction was observed for the search reaction times (RTs) [F(4,84) = 3.805, p < 0.05, and η2p = 0.458], showing that the TMS effect was only detected in the valid condition [F(2,42) = 6.972, p < 0.01, and η2p = 0.411] but not in neutral and invalid conditions [all p > 0.1]
Post hoc t-tests, using Bonferroni correction for the three possible comparisons across the three TMS conditions, revealed faster search RTs in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC)-TMS compared to the vertex-TMS [t(21) = 2.816, p < 0.05], and faster search RTs in the right posterior parietal cortex (rPPC)-TMS compared to the vertex-TMS [t(21) = 3.424, p < 0.01] for the valid trials
Summary
Working memory (WM) plays a crucial role in the control of visual selection. Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence show that WM biases the competition for selection in favor of objects that fit the WM content (Kumar et al, 2009; Hollingworth et al, 2013). We investigated the role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) in controlling the interaction between WM and attention during a visual search To this end we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a technique that produces focal, transient and fully reversible disruptions in brain activity by delivering strong magnetic pulses to the cortex that pass through the skull and depolarize the underlying neurons of particular areas in the brain (Epstein et al, 2012; Balconi, 2013). The latter is referred to as repetitive TMS (rTMS). rTMS can induce after effects that outlast the stimulation period (Sandrini et al, 2011)
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