Abstract
The existing literature suggests a critical role for both the right intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and the right temporo‐parietal junction (TPJ) in our ability to attend to multiple simultaneously‐presented lateralized targets (multi‐target attention), and the failure of this ability in extinction patients. Currently, however, the precise role of each of these areas in multi‐target attention is unclear. In this study, we combined the theory of visual attention (TVA) with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) guided continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) in neurologically healthy subjects to directly investigate the role of the right IPS and TPJ in multi‐target attention. Our results show that cTBS at an area of the right IPS associated with multi‐target attention elicits a reduction of visual short‐term memory capacity. This suggests that the right IPS is associated with a general capacity‐limited encoding mechanism that is engaged regardless of whether targets have to be attended or remembered. Curiously, however, cTBS to the right IPS failed to elicit extinction‐like behavior in our study, supporting previous suggestions that different areas of the right IPS may provide different contributions to multi‐target attention. CTBS to the right TPJ failed to induce a change in either TVA parameters or extinction‐like behavior.
Highlights
Multi-target attention, that is, the ability to attend to multiple visual targets presented simultaneously across both visual fields, is essential for everyday real-world behavior such as navigating traffic scenes, engaging in team sports, and playing a videogame
In sessions 3–5, subjects participated in a theory of visual attention (TVA) experiment while we applied continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) at either the right intraparietal sulcus (IPS), the right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), or the vertex, allowing us to assess the effect of transient neuroinhibition at the IPS and TPJ area associated with multi-target attention on attentional sub-processes and our ability to attend to multiple simultaneously-presented lateralized targets
The aim of the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) localizer session was to functionally define the location of the right IPS and the right TPJ area associated with multitarget attention in each individual subject
Summary
Multi-target attention, that is, the ability to attend to multiple visual targets presented simultaneously across both visual fields, is essential for everyday real-world behavior such as navigating traffic scenes, engaging in team sports, and playing a videogame The importance of this ability is demonstrated impressively in neurological patients suffering from extinction, most commonly as a consequence of right hemispheric brain damage (Becker & Karnath, 2007). These patients are able to report single (unilateral) visual targets in either visual field, but fail to report the contralesional target in (bilateral) situations where an ipsilesional target is concurrently present (de Haan, Karnath, & Driver, 2012; Oppenheim, 1885).
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