Elsevier

Neuropsychologia

Volume 35, Issue 8, August 1997, Pages 1121-1131
Neuropsychologia

Temporal aspects of visual search studied by transcranial magnetic stimulation

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0028-3932(97)00003-1Get rights and content

Abstract

Transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied over the parietal visual cortex of subjects while they were performing ‘popout’ or conjunction visual search tasks in arrays containing eight distractors. Magnetic stimulation had no detrimental effect on the performance of pop-out search, but did significantly increase reaction times on conjunction search when stimulation was applied over the right parietal cortex 100 msec after the onset of the visual display for trials when the target was present. Target absent reaction times were elevated when stimulation was applied 160 msec after array onset. Stimulation had no effect on the number of errors made. The results suggest that a sub-region of the right parietal lobe is important for conjunction search but not for preattentive pop-out. The result from target present trials is consistent with timing data from studies of single cells in monkeys and the hypothesis that parietal areas generate a signal that projects back to extrastriate visual areas to enhance the processing of features in a restricted part of the visual field. The timing of the effect indicates that transcranial stimulation disrupts the mechanisms underlying the focal attention necessary for feature binding in conjunction search. The effects of TMS on target absent trials are interpreted in terms of fronto-parietal connections and the role of frontal cortex in decision-making. The results also highlight the efficacy of transcranial magnetic stimulation as a complement to other spatial and temporal imaging techniques.

References (62)

  • J.M. Wolfe

    Visual search in continuous, naturalistic stimuli

    Vision Research

    (1994)
  • W.H. Zangemeister et al.

    Frontal and parietal transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) disturbs programming of saccadic eye movements

    Journal of the Neurological Sciences

    (1995)
  • M. Arguin et al.

    Visual search for feature and conjunction targets with an attention deficit

    Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

    (1993)
  • J. Atkinson et al.

    'Where' and 'what' in visual search

    Perception

    (1989)
  • A.T. Barker

    An introduction to the basic principles of magnetic nerve stimulation

    Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology

    (1991)
  • G. Beckers et al.

    The consequences of inactivating areas V1 and V5 on visual motion perception

    Brain

    (1995)
  • R.B. Bolster et al.

    Cortical involvement in visual scan in the monkey

    Perception and Psychophysics

    (1993)
  • M. Cheal et al.

    Attention in visual search: multiple search classes

    Perception and Psychophysics

    (1992)
  • L. Chelazzi et al.

    A neural basis for visual search in inferior temporal cortex

    Nature

    (1993)
  • M. Corbetta et al.

    Selective and divided attention during visual discriminations of shape, color and speed: Functional anatomy by positron emission tomography

    Journal of Neuroscience

    (1991)
  • M. Corbetta et al.

    Selective attention modulates extrastriate visual regions in humans during visual feature discrimination and recognition

    Ciba Foundation Symposium

    (1991)
  • M. Corbetta et al.

    A PET study of visuospatial attention

    Journal of Neuroscience

    (1993)
  • M. Corbetta et al.

    Superior parietal cortex activation during spatial attention shifts and visual feature conjunction

    Science

    (1995)
  • J. Duncan et al.

    Visual search and stimulus similarity

    Psychological Review

    (1989)
  • M. Eglin et al.

    Cortical substrates supporting visual search in humans

    Cerebral Cortex

    (1991)
  • R. Egly et al.

    Shifting visual attention between objects and locations: evidence from normal and parietal patients

    Journal of Experimental Psychology General

    (1994)
  • P.T. Elkington et al.

    The effect of electromagnetic stimulation of the posterior parietal cortex on eye movements

    Eye

    (1992)
  • Ellison, A. and Walsh, V., Perceptual learning in visual search. Evidence for specificities. Vision Research, in...
  • S.R. Friedman-Hill et al.

    Parietal contributions to visual feature binding: evidence from a patient with bilateral lesions

    Science

    (1995)
  • E. Gomez-Tortosa et al.

    Induction of transient hemiattention to visual stimuli by rapid-rate transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of parietal areas

    Neurology

    (1993)
  • M. Hotson et al.

    Transcranial magnetic stimulation of extrastriate cortex degrades human motion direction discrimination

    Vision Research

    (1995)
  • Cited by (289)

    • Bálint syndrome

      2021, Handbook of Clinical Neurology
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text