Management of attentional resources in within‐modal and cross‐modal divided attention tasks: An fMRI study

In the present study, we were interested in distinguishing the cortical representations of within‐modal and cross‐modal divided attention tasks by using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Sixteen healthy male subjects aged between 21 and 30 years underwent two within‐modal (auditory/auditory, visual/visual) and one cross‐modal (auditory/visual) divided attention task, as well as related selective attention control conditions. After subtraction of the corresponding control task the three divided attention tasks, irrespective of sensory modality, revealed significant activation in a predominantly right hemisphere network involving the prefrontal cortex, the inferior parietal cortex, and the claustrum. Under the cross‐modal condition, however, the frontal and parietal activation was more extended and more bilateral and there also was stronger right hemisphere activation of the anterior cingulate cortex and the thalamus. In comparison to the within‐modal conditions additional bilateral frontal and left inferior parietal activation was found for the cross‐modal condition. The supplementary fronto‐parietal, anterior cingulate cortex, and thalamus activation in the auditory/visual condition could be argued to reflect an additional demand for coordination of two ongoing cross‐modal cognitive processes. Hum Brain Mapp, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

[1]  Klaus Willmes,et al.  Network for auditory intrinsic alertness: a PET study , 2004, Neuropsychologia.

[2]  Christian Kaufmann,et al.  Human prefrontal and sensory cortical activity during divided attention tasks , 2003, Human brain mapping.

[3]  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 .

[4]  P S Goldman-Rakic,et al.  Circuitry of the frontal association cortex and its relevance to dementia. , 1987, Archives of gerontology and geriatrics.

[5]  J. Pruvo,et al.  [Analysis and course of cognitive deficits after rupture of aneurysms of the anterior communicating artery]. , 1996, Revue neurologique.

[6]  C. Koch,et al.  What is the function of the claustrum? , 2005, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[7]  J. Aggleton,et al.  The functional anatomy of visual-tactile integration in man: a study using positron emission tomography , 2000, Neuropsychologia.

[8]  Mark D'Esposito,et al.  Working memory impairments in traumatic brain injury: evidence from a dual-task paradigm , 1997, Neuropsychologia.

[9]  E. Koechlin,et al.  The role of the anterior prefrontal cortex in human cognition , 1999, Nature.

[10]  P. Roland,et al.  Interference between two concurrent tasks is associated with activation of overlapping fields in the cortex. , 1997, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[11]  D. Norman,et al.  Attention to action: Willed and automatic control , 1980 .

[12]  M. Corbetta,et al.  Control of goal-directed and stimulus-driven attention in the brain , 2002, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[13]  Alan D. Baddeley,et al.  Working memory or working attention , 1993 .

[14]  Albert Gjedde,et al.  Cortical Sites of Sustained and Divided Attention in Normal Elderly Humans , 1997, NeuroImage.

[15]  M. Steriade,et al.  Reticularis thalami neurons revisited: activity changes during shifts in states of vigilance , 1986, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[16]  T G Turkington,et al.  Selective and divided visual attention: Age‐related changes in regional cerebral blood flow measured by H215O PET , 1997, Human brain mapping.

[17]  P. Goldman-Rakic,et al.  Functional neuroanatomy of executive processes involved in dual-task performance. , 2000, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[18]  G. Ettlinger,et al.  Cross-modal performance: behavioural processes, phylogenetic considerations and neural mechanisms , 1990, Behavioural Brain Research.

[19]  A. Dove,et al.  Prefrontal cortex activation in task switching: an event-related fMRI study. , 2000, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[20]  M. Posner,et al.  Attention, self-regulation and consciousness. , 1998, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[21]  P E Roland,et al.  Cross-Modal Transfer of Information between the Tactile and the Visual Representations in the Human Brain: A Positron Emission Tomographic Study , 1998, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[22]  Alan C. Evans,et al.  Time-Related Changes in Neural Systems Underlying Attention and Arousal During the Performance of an Auditory Vigilance Task , 1997, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[23]  Joseph A Maldjian,et al.  Cross‐modal sensory processing in the anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortices , 2003, Human brain mapping.

[24]  J. Fuster.  Frontal lobes , 1993, Current Opinion in Neurobiology.

[25]  J. Coull.  Neural correlates of attention and arousal: insights from electrophysiology, functional neuroimaging and psychopharmacology , 1998, Progress in Neurobiology.

[26]  R. Guillery,et al.  Paying attention to the thalamic reticular nucleus , 1998, Trends in Neurosciences.

[27]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  Neuroimaging Studies of Attention: From Modulation of Sensory Processing to Top-Down Control , 2003, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[28]  J D Gabrieli,et al.  A resource model of the neural basis of executive working memory. , 2000, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[29]  S. Petersen,et al.  Functional Anatomic Studies of Memory Retrieval for Auditory Words and Visual Pictures , 1996, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[30]  D. V. von Cramon,et al.  Localization of Executive Functions in Dual-Task Performance with fMRI , 2002, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[31]  Michael I. Posner,et al.  Brain Imaging of Attentional Networks in Normal and Pathological States , 2001, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[32]  Hans-W. Müller-Gärtner,et al.  Systems level modeling of a neuronal network subserving intrinsic alertness , 2006, NeuroImage.

[33]  A. Baddeley,et al.  Attention : selection, awareness, and control : a tribute to Donald Broadbent , 1996 .

[34]  Jodie A. Baird,et al.  Executive Attention and Metacognitive Regulation , 2000, Consciousness and Cognition.

[35]  Donald A. Norman,et al.  Attention to Action , 1986 .

[36]  M. Corbetta,et al.  Selective and divided attention during visual discriminations of shape, color, and speed: functional anatomy by positron emission tomography , 1991, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[37]  I. Radermacher,et al.  Functional anatomy of intrinsic alertness: evidencefor a fronto-parietal-thalamic-brainstem network in theright hemisphere , 1999, Neuropsychologia.

[38]  J E Skinner,et al.  Regulation of unit activity in nucleus reticularis thalami by the mesencephalic reticular formation and the frontal granular cortex. , 1975, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[39]  John Duncan,et al.  Restricted attentional capacity within but not between sensory modalities , 1997, Nature.

[40]  G. Calvert.  Crossmodal processing in the human brain: insights from functional neuroimaging studies. , 2001, Cerebral cortex.

[41]  A. V. Zomeren,et al.  Residual complaints of patients two years after severe head injury. , 1985, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[42]  M. Mesulam.  Spatial attention and neglect: parietal, frontal and cingulate contributions to the mental representation and attentional targeting of salient extrapersonal events. , 1999, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.