Momentary reductions of attention permit greater processing of irrelevant stimuli.

Momentary reductions of attention can have extremely adverse outcomes, but it remains unclear whether increased distraction from irrelevant stimuli contributes to such outcomes. To investigate this hypothesis, we examined trial-by-trial relationships between brain activity and response time in twenty healthy adults while they performed a cross-modal selective attention task. In each trial, participants identified a relevant visual letter while ignoring an irrelevant auditory letter, which was mapped either to the same response as the visual letter (congruent trials) or to a different response (incongruent trials). As predicted, reductions of attention (i.e., increases of response time) were associated not only with decreased activity in sensory regions that processed the relevant visual stimuli, suggesting a failure to enhance the processing of those stimuli, but also with increased activity in sensory regions that processed the irrelevant auditory stimuli, suggesting a failure to suppress the processing of those stimuli. Reductions of attention were also linked to larger increases of activity in incongruent than in congruent trials in anterior cingulate regions that detect response conflict, suggesting that failing to suppress the sensory processing of the irrelevant auditory stimuli during attentional reductions allowed those stimuli to more readily activate conflicting responses in incongruent trials. These findings indicate that heightened levels of distraction during momentary reductions of attention likely stem, at least in part, from increased processing of irrelevant stimuli.

Cognitive control in social situations: a role for the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated brain activity elicited by a computer-animated child's actions that appeared consistent and inconsistent with a computer-animated adult's instructions. Participants observed a computer-animated adult verbally instructing a computer-animated child to touch one of two objects. The child performed correctly in half of the trials and incorrectly in the other half. We observed significantly greater activity when the child performed incorrectly compared to correctly in regions of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) that have been implicated in maintaining our intentions in working memory and implementing cognitive control. However, no such effects were found in regions of the posterior superior temporal sulcus (posterior STS) that have been posited to interpret other people's behavior. These findings extend the role of the DLPFC in cognitive control to evaluating the social outcomes of other people's behavior and provide important new constraints for theories of how the posterior STS contributes to social cognition.

fMRI evidence for both generalized and specialized components of attentional control.

A central question in the study of selective attention is whether top-down attentional control mechanisms are generalized or specialized for the type of information that is to be attended. The current study examined this question using a voluntary orienting task that cued observers to attend to either one of two locations or to one of two colors. Location (spatial) and color (nonspatial) conditions were presented either randomly intermixed within the same block of trials or in separate blocks. Functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that directing attention to a location or to a color activated a network of overlapping dorsal frontal and parietal areas, previously implicated in attentional control. The pattern of observed overlap was not affected by the intermixed versus blocked presentation of location and color conditions. Although portions of the frontal-parietal network were more active in response to location cues than to color cues, a secondary analysis also revealed that medial dorsal frontal and parietal cortex were specifically engaged in shifting visual attention regardless of the cued dimension (location or color). Together, the present results support the conclusion that attentional control is the combination of a generalized network that works in concert with subregions of the frontoparietal network that are highly specialized for directing attention based on the content of the to-be-attended information.

The neural circuitry underlying the executive control of auditory spatial attention.

Although a fronto-parietal network has consistently been implicated in the control of visual spatial attention, the network that guides spatial attention in the auditory domain is not yet clearly understood. To investigate this issue, we measured brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging while participants performed a cued auditory spatial attention task. We found that cued orienting of auditory spatial attention activated a medial-superior distributed fronto-parietal network. In addition, we found cue-triggered increases of activity in the auditory sensory cortex prior to the occurrence of an auditory target, suggesting that auditory attentional control operates in part by biasing processing in sensory cortex in favor of expected target stimuli. Finally, an exploratory cross-study comparison further indicated several common frontal and parietal regions as being involved in the control of both visual and auditory spatial attention. Thus, the present findings not only reveal the network of brain areas underlying endogenous spatial orienting in the auditory modality, but also suggest that the control of spatial attention in different sensory modalities is enabled in part by some common, supramodal neural mechanisms.

The neural bases of momentary lapses in attention.

Momentary lapses in attention frequently impair goal-directed behavior, sometimes with serious consequences. Nevertheless, we lack an integrated view of the brain mechanisms underlying such lapses. By investigating trial-by-trial relationships between brain activity and response time in humans, we determined that attentional lapses begin with reduced prestimulus activity in anterior cingulate and right prefrontal regions involved in controlling attention. Less efficient stimulus processing during attentional lapses was also characterized by less deactivation of a 'default-mode' network, reduced stimulus-evoked sensory activity, and increased activity in widespread regions of frontal and parietal cortex. Finally, consistent with a mechanism for recovering from attentional lapses, increased stimulus-evoked activity in the right inferior frontal gyrus and the right temporal-parietal junction predicted better performance on the next trial. Our findings provide a new, system-wide understanding of the patterns of brain activity that are associated with brief attentional lapses, which informs both theoretical and clinical models of goal-directed behavior.

Brain regions activated by endogenous preparatory set shifting as revealed by fMRI.

An ongoing controversy concerns whether executive control mechanisms can actively reconfigure the cognitive system in preparation for switching to a new task set. To address this question, we recorded brain activity from 14 healthy participants, using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, while they performed a cued attention task. Critically, in any particular trial, the cued task set was either the same as that in the previous trial or switched. As was hypothesized, cue-related, switch-specific preparatory activity was observed in a network of dorsal frontal and parietal brain areas that are typically associated with cognitive control processes. Moreover, the magnitude of switch-specific preparatory activity varied with the number of possible task sets that could be presented in a given trial block. These findings provide compelling support for the existence of top-down, preparatory control processes that enable set switching. Furthermore, they demonstrate that global task structure is a critical determinant of whether switch-specific preparatory activity is observed.

Hemispheric asymmetries for different components of global/local attention occur in distinct temporo-parietal loci.

Data from brain-damaged and neurologically intact populations indicate hemispheric asymmetries in the temporo-parietal cortex for discriminating an object's global form (e.g. the overall shape of a bicycle) versus its local parts (e.g. the spokes in a bicycle tire). However, it is not yet clear whether such asymmetries reflect processes that (i) bias attention toward upcoming global versus local stimuli and/or (ii) attend/identify global versus local stimuli after they are presented. To investigate these possibilities, we asked sixteen healthy participants to perform a cued global/local attention task while their brain activity was recorded using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The results indicated a novel double dissociation. Hemispheric asymmetries for deploying attention toward expected global versus local object features were specific to the intraparietal sulcus (iPs). However, hemispheric asymmetries for identifying global versus local features after they were presented were specific to the inferior parietal lobe/superior temporal gyrus (IPL/STG). This double dissociation provides the first direct evidence that hemispheric asymmetries associated with different components of global/local attention occur in distinct temporo-parietal loci. Furthermore, it parallels an analogous dissociation reported in a recent fMRI study of spatial orienting, suggesting that global/local attention and spatial attention might rely on similar cognitive/neural mechanisms.

Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex resolves conflict from distracting stimuli by boosting attention toward relevant events.

In everyday life, we often focus greater attention on behaviorally relevant stimuli to limit the processing of distracting events. For example, when distracting voices intrude upon a conversation at a noisy social gathering, we concentrate more attention on the speaker of interest to better comprehend his or her speech. In the present study, we investigated whether dorsal/caudal regions of the anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), thought to make a major contribution to cognitive control, boost attentional resources toward behaviorally relevant stimuli as a means for limiting the processing of distracting events. Sixteen healthy participants performed a cued global/local selective attention task while brain activity was recorded with event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging. Consistent with our hypotheses, greater dACC activity during distracting events predicted reduced behavioral measures of interference from those same events. dACC activity also differed for cues to attend to global versus local features of upcoming visual objects, further indicating a role in directing attention toward task-relevant stimuli. Our findings indicate a role for dACC in focusing attention on behaviorally relevant stimuli, especially when the achievement of our behavioral goals is threatened by distracting events.

The neural mechanisms for minimizing cross-modal distraction.

The neural circuitry that increases attention to goal-relevant stimuli when we are in danger of becoming distracted is a matter of active debate. To address several long-standing controversies, we asked participants to identify a letter presented either visually or auditorily while we varied the amount of cross-modal distraction from an irrelevant letter in the opposite modality. Functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed three novel results. First, activity in sensory cortices that processed the relevant letter increased as the irrelevant letter became more distracting, consistent with a selective increase of attention to the relevant letter. In line with this view, an across-subjects correlation indicated that the larger the increase of activity in sensory cortices that processed the relevant letter, the less behavioral interference there was from the irrelevant letter. Second, regions of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) involved in orienting attention to the relevant letter also participated in increasing attention to the relevant letter when conflicting stimuli were present. Third, we observed a novel pattern of regional specialization within the cognitive division of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) for focusing attention on the relevant letter (dorsal ACC) versus detecting conflict from the irrelevant letter (rostral ACC). These findings indicate novel roles for sensory cortices, the DLPFC, and the ACC in increasing attention to goal-relevant stimulus representations when distracting stimuli conflict with behavioral objectives. Furthermore, they potentially resolve a long-standing controversy regarding the key contribution of the ACC to cognitive control.

Conflict monitoring in the human anterior cingulate cortex during selective attention to global and local object features.

Parallel processing affords the brain many advantages, but processing multiple bits of information simultaneously presents formidable challenges. For example, while one is listening to a speaker at a noisy social gathering, processing irrelevant conversations may lead to the activation of irrelevant perceptual, semantic, and response representations that conflict with those evoked by the speaker. In these situations, specialized brain systems may be recruited to detect and resolve conflict before it leads to incorrect perception and/or behavior. Consistent with this view, recent findings indicate that dorsal/caudal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), on the medial walls of the frontal lobes, detects conflict between competing motor responses primed by relevant versus irrelevant stimuli. Here, we used a cued global/local selective attention task to investigate whether the dACC plays a general role in conflict detection that includes monitoring for conflicting perceptual or semantic representations. Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we found that the dACC was activated by response conflict in both the global and the local task, consistent with results from prior studies. However, dACC was also activated by perceptual and semantic conflict arising from global distracters during the local task. The results from the local task have implications for recent theories of attentional control in which the dACC's contribution to conflict monitoring is limited to response stages of processing, as well as for our understanding of clinical disorders in which disruptions of attention are associated with dACC dysfunction.

Effects of practice on executive control investigated with fMRI.

Various models of executive control predict that practice should modulate the recruitment of executive brain mechanisms. To investigate this issue, we asked 15 participants to perform a cued global/local attention task while brain activity was recorded with event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Practice significantly reduced the recruitment of left inferior parietal regions that were engaged when participants oriented attention in response to global and local cue stimuli. In contrast, practice increased the recruitment of midline frontal regions that were engaged by interference between global and local forms during target processing. These findings support models of executive control in which practice increases the tendency for stimuli to automatically evoke task-relevant processes and responses.

A role for top-down attentional orienting during interference between global and local aspects of hierarchical stimuli.

Various models of selective attention propose that greater attention is allocated toward target stimuli when conflicting distracters make selection more difficult, but compelling evidence to support this view is scarce. In the present experiment, 15 participants performed a cued global/local selective attention task while brain activity was recorded with event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging. The presence of conflicting versus nonconflicting distracters during target processing activated regions of frontal, parietal, and visual cortices that were also activated when participants oriented attention in response to global- and local-task cues. These findings support models in which conflict between target and distracter stimuli is resolved by more selectively focusing attention upon target stimuli.

General and task-specific frontal lobe recruitment in older adults during executive processes: a fMRI investigation of task-switching.

Performance deteriorates when subjects must shift between two different tasks relative to performing either task separately. This switching cost is thought to result from executive processes that are not inherent to the component operations of either task when performed alone. Medial and dorsolateral frontal cortices are theorized to subserve these executive processes. Here we show that larger areas of activation were seen in dorsolateral and medial frontal cortex in both younger and older adults during switching than repeating conditions, confirming the role of these frontal brain regions in executive processes. Younger subjects activated these medial and dorsolateral frontal cortices only when switching between tasks; in contrast, older subjects recruited similar frontal regions while performing the tasks in isolation as well as alternating between them. Older adults recruit medial and dorsolateral frontal areas, and the processes computed by these areas, even when no such demands are intrinsic to the current task conditions. This neural recruitment may be useful in offsetting the declines in cognitive function associated with ageing.

An unbalanced distribution of inputs across the hemispheres facilitates interhemispheric interaction.

In this study, we investigated 2 possible mechanisms by which interhemispheric interaction (IHI) might facilitate performance. Twenty university students performed 3- and 4-item versions of a less complex physical identity (PI) task in which they decided whether 2 letters were perceptually identical (e.g., 'A' and 'A') and a more complex name identity (NI) task in which they decided whether 2 letters had the same name (e.g., 'A' and 'a'). Consistent with prior work, IHI facilitated performance more for the relatively complex NI task than for the simpler PI task regardless of how many items were in the display. However, for each task IHI facilitated performance less in the 4-item displays than in the 3-item displays. These results indicate that IHI facilitates performance by allowing (1) a division of processing across the hemispheres, and (2) task-relevant information to be processed by a hemisphere that receives a relatively light processing load.

The cerebral hemispheres cooperate to perform complex but not simple tasks.

Three experiments were designed to examine whether task complexity determines the degree to which a division of processing across the hemispheres (i.e., across-hemisphere processing) underlies performance when within- and across-hemisphere processing are equally possible. When task complexity was relatively low, performance in a midline condition that allowed for either within- or across-hemispheric processing resembled within-hemisphere performance (Experiments 1 and 2). However, when task complexity was high, performance in a midline condition (Experiments 1 and 2) and a lateralized condition, which also allowed for either within- or across-hemisphere processing (Experiment 3), resembled across-hemisphere performance. Results complement and extend prior work (e.g., M. T. Banich & A. Belger, 1990) by indicating that the degree to which interhemispheric cooperation underlies performance changes with the complexity of the task being performed. This finding suggests that the hemispheres dynamically couple or uncouple their processing as a function of task complexity.

Global-local interference modulated by communication between the hemispheres.

Three experiments examined whether interhemispheric interaction modulates selective attention in a same-different version of D. Navon's (1977) global-local paradigm. In Experiments 1 and 2, interhemispheric interaction reduced interstimulus interference produced when two stimuli matched at a preassigned level (e.g., local) but differed at the irrelevant level (e.g., global). This effect was greater for stimuli made of a few large elements than for those made of many small elements. Experiment 3 demonstrated that (a) the ability of interhemispheric interaction to reduce interstimulus interference is not constrained by hemispheric differences for global and local processing and (b) interhemispheric interaction does not strongly modulate intrastimulus interference produced when the forms at the preassigned (e.g., local) and irrelevant (e.g., global) levels differ within an individual stimulus. These findings indicate that interaction between the hemispheres is a neural mechanism that may aid selective attention.