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Prefrontal modulation of visual processing in humans

Nature Neuroscience volume 3, pages 399–403 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

Single neuron, evoked potential and metabolic techniques show that attention influences visual processing in extrastriate cortex. We provide anatomical, electrophysiological and behavioral evidence that prefrontal cortex regulates neuronal activity in extrastriate cortex during visual discrimination. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a visual detection task in patients with damage in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Prefrontal damage reduced neuronal activity in extrastriate cortex of the lesioned hemisphere. These electrophysiological abnormalities, beginning 125 ms after stimulation and lasting for another 500 ms, were accompanied by behavioral deficits in detection ability in the contralesional hemifield. The results provide evidence for intrahemispheric prefrontal modulation of visual processing.

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Figure 1: Visual attention deficits and prefrontal lesions.
Figure 2: Early and late ERPs and voltage maps.
Figure 3: Scalp topography of early and late extrastriate responses.

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Acknowledgements

Supported by Fundación Complutense del Amo, Comunidad de Madrid grant 08.5/0012/98 and NINDS grant NS21135. We thank Clay C. Clayworth for technical support. An earlier version of this work was presented at the 39th Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (Granada 1999).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychobiology, Faculty of Psychology, Complutense University, Somosaguas, 28223, Madrid, Spain

    Francisco Barceló

  2. Department of Psychology, University of California at Berkeley, 3210 Tolman Hall, Berkeley, 94720-1650, California, USA

    Francisco Barceló, Shugo Suwazono & Robert T. Knight

  3. Department of Integrated Neuroscience, Brain Research Institute, Niigata University, Japan

    Shugo Suwazono

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  1. Francisco Barceló
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  2. Shugo Suwazono
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  3. Robert T. Knight
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Correspondence to Robert T. Knight.

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Barceló, F., Suwazono, S. & Knight, R. Prefrontal modulation of visual processing in humans. Nat Neurosci 3, 399–403 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/73975

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