Timing of visuo-spatial information processing: Electrical source imaging related to line bisection judgements

This study deconvolves the temporal dynamics of the neural processes underlying line bisection judgements (i.e., the landmark task). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 96 scalp electrodes in 10 healthy right-handed male subjects while they were judging whether horizontal lines were correctly prebisected. In the control task, subjects judged whether or not the horizontal line was transected by a vertical line, irrespective of its position. Using a current density reconstruction approach, source maxima in the time range from 50 to 400ms after stimulus onset were localized and the time courses of activation were elaborated. Five regions, corresponding to those revealed by our previous fMRI studies (e.g., [Fink, G. R., Marshall, J. C., Shah, N. J., Weiss, P. H., Halligan, P. W., Grosse-Ruyken, et al. (2000). Line bisection judgments implicate right parietal cortex and cerebellum as assessed by fMRI. Neurology, 54, 1324-1331]), were identified as contributing significant source activity related to line bisection judgements: right middle occipital gyrus (Brodmann area; BA18); bilateral inferior occipital gyrus (BA19); right superior posterior parietal cortex (BA7) and right inferior posterior parietal cortex (BA40). Temporal deconvolution indicated sequential activation of these regions starting at BA18 as early as 90ms post-stimulus onset, followed by the successive activation of the right superior posterior parietal (BA7), bilateral inferior occipital (BA19) and right inferior posterior parietal cortex (BA40). Three of these areas (BA18, BA17 and BA19) became reactivated within 250ms of stimulus onset. The data provide evidence for an early involvement of the right hemispheric parietal network in visuo-spatial information processing. Furthermore, the temporal deconvolution of the electrophysiological data suggest that iterative processes between and within parietal (dorsal path) and occipital areas (ventral path) mediate bisection judgements.

[1]  G. V. Simpson,et al.  Parieto‐occipital ∼1 0Hz activity reflects anticipatory state of visual attention mechanisms , 1998 .

[2]  S. Hillyard,et al.  Involvement of striate and extrastriate visual cortical areas in spatial attention , 1999, Nature Neuroscience.

[3]  Gereon R. Fink,et al.  Spatial Cognition: Where We Were and Where We Are , 2001, NeuroImage.

[4]  Gereon R Fink,et al.  Are action and perception in near and far space additive or interactive factors? , 2003, NeuroImage.

[5]  G. Mangun,et al.  Covariations in ERP and PET measures of spatial selective attention in human extrastriate visual cortex , 1997, Human brain mapping.

[6]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  Mechanisms of visual attention in the human cortex. , 2000, Annual review of neuroscience.

[7]  S. Hillyard,et al.  Cortical sources of the early components of the visual evoked potential , 2002, Human brain mapping.

[8]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Statistical parametric maps in functional imaging: A general linear approach , 1994 .

[9]  G. V. Simpson,et al.  Anticipatory Biasing of Visuospatial Attention Indexed by Retinotopically Specific α-Bank Electroencephalography Increases over Occipital Cortex , 2000, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[10]  S. Hillyard,et al.  Event-related brain potentials in the study of visual selective attention. , 1998, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[11]  John J. Foxe,et al.  Activation Timecourse of Ventral Visual Stream Object-recognition Areas: High Density Electrical Mapping of Perceptual Closure Processes , 2000, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[12]  P. Fox,et al.  Retinotopic organization of early visual spatial attention effects as revealed by PET and ERPs , 1997, Human brain mapping.

[13]  S. Ferber,et al.  Spatial awareness is a function of the temporal not the posterior parietal lobe , 2001, Nature.

[14]  S. Luck,et al.  Spatio‐temporal dynamics of attention to color: Evidence from human electrophysiology , 1998, Human brain mapping.

[15]  S. Luck,et al.  Sources of attention-sensitive visual event-related potentials , 2005, Brain Topography.

[16]  C D Frith,et al.  Space-based and object-based visual attention: shared and specific neural domains. , 1997, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[17]  G. Vallar.  Extrapersonal Visual Unilateral Spatial Neglect and Its Neuroanatomy , 2001, NeuroImage.

[18]  M. Fuchs,et al.  Spatio-Temporal Current Density Reconstruction (stCDR) from EEG/MEG-Data , 2004, Brain Topography.

[19]  M. McCourt,et al.  Pseudoneglect: a review and meta-analysis of performance factors in line bisection tasks , 2000, Neuropsychologia.

[20]  T. D. Waberski,et al.  Spatiotemporal Imaging of Electrical Activity Related to Attention to Somatosensory Stimulation , 2002, NeuroImage.

[21]  Ivan Toni,et al.  Task instructions influence the cognitive strategies involved in line bisection judgements: evidence from modulated neural mechanisms revealed by fMRI , 2002, Neuropsychologia.

[22]  S. Edelman,et al.  Differential Processing of Objects under Various Viewing Conditions in the Human Lateral Occipital Complex , 1999, Neuron.

[23]  H. Karnath,et al.  Disturbed line bisection is associated with posterior brain lesions , 2006, Brain Research.

[24]  K. Zilles,et al.  Line bisection judgments implicate right parietal cortex and cerebellum as assessed by fMRI , 2000, Neurology.

[25]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Spatial registration and normalization of images , 1995 .

[26]  John J. Foxe,et al.  Visual Perceptual Learning in Human Object Recognition Areas: A Repetition Priming Study Using High-Density Electrical Mapping , 2001, NeuroImage.

[27]  M. Moscovitch,et al.  Distinct neural correlates of visual long-term memory for spatial location and object identity: a positron emission tomography study in humans. , 1995, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[28]  M. Torrens.  Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain—3-Dimensional Proportional System: An Approach to Cerebral Imaging, J. Talairach, P. Tournoux. Georg Thieme Verlag, New York (1988), 122 pp., 130 figs. DM 268 , 1990 .

[29]  Robin Walker,et al.  Spatial and object-based neglect , 1995 .

[30]  Daniel C. Javitt,et al.  Right hemisphere control of visuospatial attention: line-bisection judgments evaluated with high-density electrical mapping and source analysis☆ , 2003, NeuroImage.

[31]  T. Allison,et al.  Electrophysiological studies of human face perception. I: Potentials generated in occipitotemporal cortex by face and non-face stimuli. , 1999, Cerebral cortex.

[32]  R. C. Oldfield.  The assessment and analysis of handedness: the Edinburgh inventory. , 1971, Neuropsychologia.

[33]  J. Marshall,et al.  Spatial cognition: evidence from visual neglect , 2003, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[34]  R. Malach,et al.  Object-related activity revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging in human occipital cortex. , 1995, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[35]  Thomas Stephan,et al.  Performing allocentric visuospatial judgments with induced distortion of the egocentric reference frame: an fMRI study with clinical implications , 2003, NeuroImage.

[36]  K. Zilles,et al.  The Neural Basis of Vertical and Horizontal Line Bisection Judgments: An fMRI Study of Normal Volunteers , 2001, NeuroImage.

[37]  M. Gazzaniga,et al.  Combined spatial and temporal imaging of brain activity during visual selective attention in humans , 1994, Nature.

[38]  M. Posner,et al.  Orienting of Attention* , 1980, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[39]  Chantal Delon-Martin,et al.  Temporal pattern of source activities evoked by different types of motion onset stimuli , 2006, NeuroImage.

[40]  M. Mesulam.  Attentional networks, confusional states, and neglect syndromes. , 2000 .