Spatiotemporal and sensory modality attention processing with domain-specific representations in frontoparietal areas

Abstract

The frontoparietal network (FPN), including bilateral frontal eye field, inferior parietal sulcus, and supplementary motor area, has been linked to attention processing, including spatiotemporal and sensory modality domains. However, it is unclear whether FPN encodes representations of these domains that are generalizable across subdomains. We decomposed multivariate patterns of functional magnetic resonance imaging activity from 20 participants into domain-specific components and identified latent multivariate representations that generalized across subdomains. The 30 experimental conditions were organized into unimodal–bimodal and spatial–temporal models. We found that brain areas in the FPN, form the primary network that modulated during attention across domains. However, the activation patterns of areas within the FPN were reorganized according to the specific attentional demand, especially when pay attention to different sensory, suggesting distinct regional neural representations associated with specific attentional processes within FPN. In addition, there were also other domain-specific areas outside the FPN, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Our conclusion is that, according to the results of the analysis of representation similarity, 2 types of activated brain regions, related to attention domain detailed information processing and general information processing, can be revealed.

Neural mechanisms of top-down divided and selective spatial attention in visual and auditory perception

“…These regions were considered not only for selective attention with a single target but also for a divided attention process with multiple targets. The role of the dFPN in spatial attention orientation was reported in an fMRI study [48, 49], which is consistent with our findings of widespread activation of both unilateral and bilateral networks, suggesting that spatial attention is not mediated by isolated cortex or unilateral networks but requires extensive bilateral frontoparietal networks.…”

“…In our study, we applied GC analysis to confirm the different neural mechanisms by which divided attention and selective attention regulate the process of audiovisual integration [50]. Our results demonstrated significantly higher activation in the divided spatial attention task than in the selective attention tasks.…”