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The Journal of Neuroscience, October 1, 2008, 28(40):10056-10061; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1776-08.2008

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Brief Communications
Top-Down Control of Human Visual Cortex by Frontal and Parietal Cortex in Anticipatory Visual Spatial Attention

Steven L. Bressler,^1,2 Wei Tang,¹ Chad M. Sylvester,³ Gordon L. Shulman,⁴ and Maurizio Corbetta^3,4,5

¹Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences and ²Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida 33431, and ³Departments of Radiology, ⁴Neurology, and ⁵Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110

Correspondence should be addressed to Steven L. Bressler, Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, FL 33431. Email: bressler{at}fau.edu

Advance information about an impending stimulus facilitates its subsequent identification and ensuing behavioral responses. This facilitation is thought to be mediated by top-down control signals from frontal and parietal cortex that modulate sensory cortical activity. Here we show, using Granger causality measures on blood oxygen level-dependent time series, that frontal eye field (FEF) and intraparietal sulcus (IPS) activity predicts visual occipital activity before an expected visual stimulus. Top-down levels of Granger causality from FEF and IPS to visual occipital cortex were significantly greater than both bottom-up and mean cortex-wide levels in all individual subjects and the group. In the group and most individual subjects, Granger causality was significantly greater from FEF to IPS than from IPS to FEF, and significantly greater from both FEF and IPS to intermediate-tier than lower-tier ventral visual areas. Moreover, top-down Granger causality from right IPS to intermediate-tier areas was predictive of correct behavioral performance. These results suggest that FEF and IPS modulate visual occipital cortex, and FEF modulates IPS, in relation to visual attention. The current approach may prove advantageous for the investigation of interregional directed influences in other human brain functions.

Key words: cerebral cortex; fMRI; vision; attention; Granger causality; frontal cortex; parietal cortex

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Received April 23, 2008; revised Aug. 29, 2008; accepted Aug. 30, 2008.

Correspondence should be addressed to Steven L. Bressler, Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, FL 33431. Email: bressler{at}fau.edu

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