Fronto-striatal mechanisms of attentional control
Year: 2012
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Current models of flexible cognitive control emphasize the role of the prefrontal cortex. This region has been shown to control attention by biasing information processing in favour of task-relevant representations. However, the prefrontal cortex does not act in isolation. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging combined with nonlinear dynamic causal modelling to demonstrate that the basal ganglia play a role in modulating the top-down influence of the prefrontal cortex on visual processing in humans. Specifically, our results reveal that connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and stimulus-specific visual association areas depends on activity in the basal ganglia, elicited by salient events leading to shifts in attention. These data integrate disparate literatures on top-down control by the prefrontal cortex and selective gating by the basal ganglia and highlight the importance of the basal ganglia for high-level cognitive control. Based on: van Schouwenburg, M.R., den Ouden, H.E.M., Cools, R. (2010). The human basal ganglia modulate frontal-posterior connectivity during attention shifting. Journal of Neuroscience 30(29): 9910-9918
Author: Martine R. van Schouwenburg
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2138200318