Differentiation of Motor Intention vs Visual Attention in Human Parietal Cortex
Mentor 1
Wendy Huddleston
Location
Union Wisconsin Room
Start Date
28-4-2017 1:30 PM
End Date
28-4-2017 4:00 PM
Description
Regions in the parietal cortex of the brain have been associated with saccade planning (a rapid eye movement between fixation points), however, the extent to which this brain region is specifically involved in motor planning vs visual attention during this task has not previously been differentiated. Our goal was to determine which regions of parietal cortex contributed to visual attention and motor intention, and how these regions related to one another. Participant's brains were scanned via MRI while they completed two tasks on two different days. The task for motor planning involved a screen with a target in each corner and a letter stream (changing every 200 ms) in the center. When the target cue appeared in the middle letter stream, participants had to anticipate moving their eyes to a specific peripheral target, and once presented with the go cue, they moved their eyes to that target. The visual attention task used the same visual stimulus, but instead of making eye movements, the participants covertly shifted their visual attention to the letter stream located at the cued location and pressed a button when the letter 'X' appeared. We identified the specific regions of parietal cortex associated with either visual attention or motor intention. We were then able to see where the two maps overlapped. Our results showed that motor intention (saccade) spatial maps can be differentiated from visual attention spatial maps in posterior parietal cortex. However, the amount of overlap of intention and attention varied greatly among the participants. Having a better understanding of specific brain areas involved with either visual attention or motor intention can help fuel research on neural rehabilitation, and ultimately aid people such as stroke survivors or those with other brain lesions affecting these processes.
Differentiation of Motor Intention vs Visual Attention in Human Parietal Cortex
Union Wisconsin Room
Regions in the parietal cortex of the brain have been associated with saccade planning (a rapid eye movement between fixation points), however, the extent to which this brain region is specifically involved in motor planning vs visual attention during this task has not previously been differentiated. Our goal was to determine which regions of parietal cortex contributed to visual attention and motor intention, and how these regions related to one another. Participant's brains were scanned via MRI while they completed two tasks on two different days. The task for motor planning involved a screen with a target in each corner and a letter stream (changing every 200 ms) in the center. When the target cue appeared in the middle letter stream, participants had to anticipate moving their eyes to a specific peripheral target, and once presented with the go cue, they moved their eyes to that target. The visual attention task used the same visual stimulus, but instead of making eye movements, the participants covertly shifted their visual attention to the letter stream located at the cued location and pressed a button when the letter 'X' appeared. We identified the specific regions of parietal cortex associated with either visual attention or motor intention. We were then able to see where the two maps overlapped. Our results showed that motor intention (saccade) spatial maps can be differentiated from visual attention spatial maps in posterior parietal cortex. However, the amount of overlap of intention and attention varied greatly among the participants. Having a better understanding of specific brain areas involved with either visual attention or motor intention can help fuel research on neural rehabilitation, and ultimately aid people such as stroke survivors or those with other brain lesions affecting these processes.
