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The Journal of Neuroscience, November 11, 2009, 29(45):14160-14176; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1916-09.2009

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Neural Activity in the Middle Temporal Area and Lateral Intraparietal Area during Endogenously Cued Shifts of Attention

Todd M. Herrington and John A. Assad

Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. John Assad, Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, 220 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115. Email: john_assad{at}hms.harvard.edu

We measured the behavioral time course of endogenously cued attentional shifts while recording from neurons in the middle temporal area (MT) and lateral intraparietal area (LIP) of two macaque monkeys. The monkeys were required to detect a subtle speed change of one of two continuously moving stimuli. The likely location of the speed change was cued throughout each trial but could switch at an unpredictable time. Attention was evident as an improvement in detection ability and reaction time at the cued location, and the focus of attention shifted over a 400 ms period in response to a switch of the cued stimulus. Attention modulated the ongoing neural response in both MT and LIP, and the sign of this modulation also rapidly shifted after a cue switch. Our data provide a framework for understanding the link between the neural and behavioral effects of attention. The responses of single neurons to the test stimulus in MT and LIP were correlated with stimulus detection and reaction time and, at the population level, a spike-rate threshold model was able to account for the effect of attention on detection rate and reaction time. In this view, the time course of the attentional shift can be understood as an interaction between the emerging attentional modulation and the neural response to the test stimulus in LIP. We also present evidence that the threshold model is not wholly explained by sensory (feedforward) information but may also be influenced by cognitive (feedback) processes at the time of stimulus detection.

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Received April 22, 2009; revised Aug. 9, 2009; accepted Sept. 16, 2009.

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. John Assad, Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, 220 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115. Email: john_assad{at}hms.harvard.edu

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