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Brain Advance Access originally published online on February 4, 2004
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Brain, Vol. 127, No. 3, 650-659, 2004
© 2004 Guarantors of Brain
doi: 10.1093/brain/awh071

The role of human parietal cortex in attention networks

Shihui Han1,2, Yi Jiang1, Hua Gu3, Hengyi Rao1, Lihua Mao1, Yong Cui3 and Renyou Zhai3

1 Department of Psychology, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, 2 Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and 3 Department of Radiology, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence to: Shihui Han PhD, Department of Psychology, Peking University, 5 Yiheyuan Road, Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China E-mail: shan{at}pku.edu.cn

The parietal cortex has been proposed as part of the neural network for guiding spatial attention. However, it is unclear to what degree the parietal cortex contributes to the attentional modulations of activities of the visual cortex and the engagement of the frontal cortex in the attention network. We recorded behavioural performance and haemodynamic responses using functional MRI from a patient with focal left parietal damage in covert visual orienting tasks requiring detection of targets at the attended or unattended locations. While the patient’s reaction times to left visual field stimuli were speeded by valid relative to invalid cues, attention to LVF stimuli was associated with enhanced activities in the right extrastriate cortex, right parietal and cingulate cortices, and bilateral frontal cortices. However, the patient’s behavioural and neural responses to right visual field stimuli were not influenced by cue validity. The results are discussed in terms of the role of human parietal cortex in the neural network underlying voluntary attentional control.

Key Words: cue validity; ERP; fMRI; parietal cortex; spatial attention

Abbreviations: BA= Brodmann area; ERP = event related potential; fMRI = functional MRI; LVF = left visual field; RT = reaction time; RVF = right visual field

Received February 15, 2003. First revision July 7, 2003. Second revision October 6, 2003. Third revision November 2, 2003. Accepted November 9, 2003. .


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