TY - JOUR
T1 - Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation over Posterior Parietal Cortex Modulates Alerting and Executive Control Processes in Attention
AU - Middag-van Spanje, Marij
AU - Duecker, Felix
AU - Gallotto, Stefano
AU - de Graaf, Tom A.
AU - van Heugten, Caroline
AU - Sack, Alexander T.
AU - Schuhmann, Teresa
N1 - This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/11
Y1 - 2022/11
N2 - Attention includes three different functional components: generating and maintaining an alert state (alerting), orienting to sensory events (orienting), and resolving conflicts between alternative actions (executive control). Neuroimaging and patient studies suggest that the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is involved in all three attention components. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has repeatedly been applied over the PPC to study its functional role for shifts and maintenance of visuospatial attention. Most TMS-PPC studies used only detection tasks or orienting paradigms to investigate TMS-PPC effects on attention processes, neglecting the alerting and executive control components of attention. The objective of the present study was to investigate the role of PPC in all three functional components of attention: alerting, orienting, and executive control. To this end, we disrupted PPC with TMS (continuous theta-burst stimulation), to modulate subsequent performance on the Lateralized-Attention Network Test, used to assess the three attention components separately. Our results revealed hemifield-specific effects on alerting and executive control functions, but we did not find stimulation effects on orienting performance. While this field of research and associated clinical development have been predominantly focused on orienting performance, our results suggest that parietal cortex and its modulation may affect other aspects of attention as well.
AB - Attention includes three different functional components: generating and maintaining an alert state (alerting), orienting to sensory events (orienting), and resolving conflicts between alternative actions (executive control). Neuroimaging and patient studies suggest that the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is involved in all three attention components. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has repeatedly been applied over the PPC to study its functional role for shifts and maintenance of visuospatial attention. Most TMS-PPC studies used only detection tasks or orienting paradigms to investigate TMS-PPC effects on attention processes, neglecting the alerting and executive control components of attention. The objective of the present study was to investigate the role of PPC in all three functional components of attention: alerting, orienting, and executive control. To this end, we disrupted PPC with TMS (continuous theta-burst stimulation), to modulate subsequent performance on the Lateralized-Attention Network Test, used to assess the three attention components separately. Our results revealed hemifield-specific effects on alerting and executive control functions, but we did not find stimulation effects on orienting performance. While this field of research and associated clinical development have been predominantly focused on orienting performance, our results suggest that parietal cortex and its modulation may affect other aspects of attention as well.
U2 - 10.1111/ejn.15830
DO - 10.1111/ejn.15830
M3 - Article
C2 - 36161393
SN - 0953-816X
VL - 56
SP - 5853
EP - 5868
JO - European Journal of Neuroscience
JF - European Journal of Neuroscience
IS - 10
ER -