Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-11-2019

Publication Title

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

Abstract

The Temporoparietal Junction (TPJ) of the cerebral cortex is a functionally heterogeneous region that also exhibits substantial anatomical variability across individuals. As a result, the precise functional organization of TPJ remains controversial. One or more regions within TPJ support visual attention processes, but the “attention TPJ” is difficult to functionally observe in individual subjects, and thus is typically identified by averaging across a large group of subjects. However, group-averaging also blurs localization and can obscure functional organization. Here, we develop and test an individual-subject approach to identifying attentional TPJ. This paradigm employs novel oddball images with a strong visual drive to produce robust TPJ responses in individuals. Vivid, novel oddballs drive responses in two TPJ regions bilaterally, a posterior region centered in posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus (TPJSTS) and an anterior region in ventral Supramarginal Gyrus (TPJSMG). Although an attentional reorienting task fails to drive TPJ activation in individuals, group analysis of the attentional reorienting contrast reveals recruitment of right TPJSTS, but not right TPJSMG. Similarly, right TPJSTS, as identified in individual subjects by the vivid, novel oddball contrast, is activated by attentional reorienting, but right TPJSMG is not. These findings advance an individual-subject based approach to understanding the functional organization of TPJ.

Keywords

attention, individual-subject approach, magnetic resonance imaging, parietal lobe, temporal lobe, TPJ

Volume

13

DOI

10.3389/fnhum.2019.00424

Comments

Archived as published. Open access article.

Download

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.