Cross-Modal Attention Effects in the Vestibular Cortex during Attentive Tracking of Moving Objects

Abstract

The midposterior fundus of the Sylvian fissure in the human brain is central to the cortical processing of vestibular cues. At least two vestibular areas are located at this site: the parietoinsular vestibular cortex (PIVC) and the posterior insular cortex (PIC). It is now well established that activity in sensory systems is subject to cross-modal attention effects. Attending to a stimulus in one sensory modality enhances activity in the corresponding cortical sensory system, but simultaneously suppresses activity in other sensory systems. Here, we wanted to probe whether such cross-modal attention effects also target the vestibular system. To this end, we used a visual multiple-object tracking task. By parametrically varying the number of tracked targets, we could measure the effect of attentional load on the PIVC and the PIC while holding the perceptual load constant. Participants performed the tracking task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Results show that, compared with passive viewing of object motion, activity during object tracking was suppressed in the PIVC and enhanced in the PIC. Greater attentional load, induced by increasing the number of tracked targets, was associated with a corresponding increase in the suppression of activity in the PIVC. Activity in the anterior part of the PIC decreased with increasing load, whereas load effects were absent in the posterior PIC. Results of a control experiment show that attention-induced suppression in the PIVC is stronger than any suppression evoked by the visual stimulus per se. Overall, our results suggest that attention has a cross-modal modulatory effect on the vestibular cortex during visual object tracking.

Neural bases of self‐ and object‐motion in a naturalistic vision

“…Area PIC in the Sylvian fissure is a motion region responding to visual and vestibular motion, presumably supporting the integration of motion information from visual and vestibular senses for the perception of self-motion (Frank, Sun, et al, 2016;Frank, Wirth, & Greenlee, 2016). A recent study by Huang et al (2015) found that the right PIC (there called PIVC) responds to active dodges suggesting that it plays an active role in sensing and guiding translational egomotion.…”

“…, Amunts,Mohlberg, & Zilles, 2006;Fasold et al, 2002;Friberg, Olsen, Roland, Paulson, & Lassen, 1985;Indovina et al, 2005), or visual stimuli(Cardin & Smith, 2010). Thus, previously reported activations in posterior lateral sulcus during self-motion induced by visual motion(Cardin & Smith, 2010;Huang et al, 2015;Uesaki & Ashida, 2015) might fall within PIC, or at least partially overlap with PIC, rather than PIVCFrank, Sun, et al, 2016;Frank, Wirth, & Greenlee, 2016;Greenlee et al, 2016). PIVC is located more anteriorly, in correspondence of the lateral end of the central sulcus.…”

“…Like CSv, CMA, and PIC also show vestibular responses (Fasold et al, 2002;Frank, Sun, et al, 2016;Frank, Wirth, & Greenlee, 2016).…”

“…But recent evidence has showed that along the insula in humans there are two motion regions, named PIVC and PIC . PIVC is located might fall within PIC, or at least partially overlap with PIC, rather than PIVC Frank, Sun, et al, 2016;Frank, Wirth, & Greenlee, 2016;Greenlee et al, 2016). Here, as we used a pure visual stimulation, we refer to this region as PIC area.…”

Altered structure of the vestibular cortex in patients with vestibular migraine

“…However, it is not clear whether the vestibular cortical core region is a single area. Frank and colleagues, based on recent function and structural brain imaging studies (Billington & Smith, ; Frank & Greenlee, ; Frank, Sun, Forster, Tse, & Greenlee, ; Frank, Wirth, & Greenlee, ; Schindler & Bartels, ; Wirth, Frank, Greenlee, & Beer, ), have found some evidence for the existence of at least one other; this region has been named the posterior insular cortex area (PIC). The PIC is located in the retroinsular cortex posterior to the PIVC (Frank, Wirth, et al, ).…”