Abstract
Attention can be conceptualized as comprising the functions of alerting, orienting, and executive control. Although the independence of these functions has been demonstrated, the neural mechanisms underlying their interactions remain unclear. Using the revised attention network test and functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined cortical and subcortical activity related to these attentional functions and their interactions. Results showed that areas in the extended frontoparietal network (FPN), including dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, frontal eye fields (FEF), areas near and along the intraparietal sulcus, anterior cingulate and anterior insular cortices, basal ganglia, and thalamus were activated across multiple attentional functions. Specifically, the alerting function was associated with activation in the locus coeruleus (LC) in addition to regions in the FPN. The orienting functions were associated with activation in the superior colliculus (SC) and the FEF. The executive control function was mainly associated with activation of the FPN and cerebellum. The interaction effect of alerting by executive control was also associated with activation of the FPN, while the interaction effect of orienting validity by executive control was mainly associated with the activation in the pulvinar. The current findings demonstrate that cortical and specific subcortical areas play a pivotal role in the implementation of attentional functions and underlie their dynamic interactions.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 308-319 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Neuroimage |
Volume | 129 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 1 2016 |
Funding
This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Award R01 MH094305 and by NIH Grant M01 RR000071 from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) . The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH or NCRR. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. B. X. was supported by the grant from National Natural Science Foundation of China 31171076 .
Keywords
- Alerting
- Attentional networks
- Executive control
- FMRI
- Orienting
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Neurology
- Cognitive Neuroscience