Modifications of neuron activities of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during extrafoveal attention

Abstract

In order to determine the involvement of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PF) of monkeys in extrafoveal visual attention, PF neuron activities to the identical visual stimuli presented extrafoveally were compared during a simple visual fixation task and an extrafoveal attention task. Four out of 29 steady type neurons showed a clear change after the extrafoveal stimuli presented during the extrafoveal attention task. Ten out of 75 transient type neurons showed a subtle change during extrafoveal attention. It was concluded that a fraction of the prefrontal neurons of the steady type is involved in an attention mechanism to the extrafoveal vision.