The contribution of IPL(BA7/39) and ACC(BA24/33) in visual spatial voluntary attention

Visual orienting attention is well researched by using a visual cue. The spatial attention and the temporal attention have been compared by the brain-imaging data [Coull, J. T., Nobre, A. C. Where and When to pay attention: the neural systems for directing attention to spatial locations and to time intervals as revealed by both PET and fMRI. Journal of Neuroscience, 1998, 18, 7426-7435]. We developed to compare visual spatial orienting attention and visual temporal orienting attention by using a visual cue. We designed a control task in which subjects had to click the response key the same times consistant with spatial task and temporal task. As a result, the brain activations by clicking response key were removed in the result. We measured brain activity in eighteen healthy volunteers by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In the task, the attention was manipulated to spatial and temporal by a visual cue. A neutral task also performed in which a neutral cue was used. Symbolic central cues oriented subjects toward spatial location only (left or right), toward temporal intervals only (300 msec or 1500 msec), or gave no information about spatial location and temporal intervals. Subjects also scanned during a resting baseline condition in which subjects clicked the reaction key ten times. The reaction time for spatial location attention is speedy than that for temporal interval attention. Brain-imaging data showed that IPL(inferior parietal lobe) and ACC(anterior cingulated cortex) were activated in the visual spatial attention task. Frontal cortex(BA9) activated in the visual temporal attention task.