Attention to Action: Specific Modulation of Corticocortical Interactions in Humans

Abstract

The prefrontal cortex may exert cognitive control by a general mechanism of attentional selection of neuronal representations. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to test this hypothesis in the motor system. Normal volunteers were scanned during performance of a simple motor task, with their attention either directed towards their actions, or diverted towards a visual search task, or neither. Attention to action increased activity in prefrontal, premotor and parietal cortex, compared with unattended performance of the same movements. Analysis of cortical activity by structural equation modelling of regional fMRI time series was used to measure effective connectivity among prefrontal, premotor and parietal cortices. Attention to action enhanced effective connectivity between dorsal prefrontal cortex and premotor cortex, whereas non-motor attention diminished it. These effects were not attributable to common inputs from parietal cortex to the prefrontal and premotor cortex. The results suggest a supra-modal role for the dorsal prefrontal cortex in attentional selection, operating within the motor system as well as sensory and mnemonic domains.

Differential involvement of cortical and cerebellar areas using dominant and nondominant hands: An FMRI study

“…The findings of the present study suggest that during NDH tasks, the increased GF is linked with a stronger activation not only of areas involved with movement control, but also in more cognitive structures such as the hippocampus and prefrontal areas, which are known to respond to increased attentional demands [Ashe, 1997; Keisker et al, 2009; Ward and Frackowiak, 2003]. In fact, the prefrontal cortex has been reported as the area responsible for mediating premotor cortex activities [Rowe et al, 2002]. …”

Dual-tasking postural control: Aging and the effects of cognitive demand in conjunction with focus of attention

“…[55,73]). Conceivably, when a secondary cognitive task sufficiently or overly strains the individual's attentional capacity, covert motor preparatory attention that is part of the automatized process of postural control may be affected as well.…”

“…Findings derived from spatial-neglect patients who suffer from postural instability suggest in particular the involvement of parietal cortical functions in postural control probably implicating internal body representations [27,38,44,65,66,73,75]. In addition to maintaining the internal body representation in 3D space, parietal lobe functions may also underlie covert preparatory motor attention [55,56], somewhat analogous to their roles in covert orienting of visual attention [46].…”

Altered connectivity between prefrontal and sensorimotor cortex in conversion paralysis

“…For example, prolonged electrical stimulation of the macaque's precentral gyrus evokes complex upper-limb movements (Graziano, Taylor, & Moore, 2002), and premotor neurons are known to select and encode various movement parameters. The increased coupling between dlPFC and PMd during motor imagery of the affected hand may be a cerebral counterpart of the increased attention to action that CP patients deploy during the generation of action plans of the paralyzed limb (Rowe, Friston, Frackowiak, & Passingham, 2002). Given the matched motor imagery performance of these CP patients during trials involving either hand (de Lange et al, 2007), it is conceivable that the increase in dlPFC-premotor connectivity reflects a compensatory mechanism, namely an increased prefrontal drive towards premotor regions supporting the imagery process.…”