Differentiating allocation of resources and conflict detection within attentional control processing.

Full Abstract

Increasing demands for conflict detection and for allocation of attentional resources increase the need for attentional control. While prior evidence suggests that different cortical regions are preferentially engaged by these two attentional processes, the effect of increasing demand for conflict detection and/or allocation of attentional resources has been relatively unexplored. We designed a novel task (the 'variable attentional control'--VAC--task) that varies the demand for attentional control by increasing conflict detection and allocation of attentional resources within the same stimuli. We studied 34 subjects who underwent event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing the VAC task. Increasing demand for attentional control, as reflected by longer reaction time and reduced accuracy, was associated with greater activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, parietal cortex and dorsal cingulate. Furthermore, an increase in conflict detection was associated with greater dorsal cingulate activity, whereas an increase in demand for allocation of attentional resources implied greater activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal and parietal cortices. In essence, in addition to allowing the exploration of the overall effects of increasing demand for attentional control, our novel task also allowed parsing of the neural components of attentional control into those related to allocation of attentional resources and those related to conflict detection.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Blasi, Giuseppe (G); Goldberg, Terry E (TE); Elvevåg, Brita (B); Rasetti, Roberta (R); Bertolino, Alessandro (A); Cohen, Jessica (J); Alce, Guilna (G); Zoltick, Brad (B); Weinberger, Daniel R (DR); Mattay, Venkata S (VS);

Affiliation: National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MA, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article

Journal: The European journal of neuroscience (Eur J Neurosci), published in France. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Jan; vol 25 (issue 2) : pp 594-602

Dates: Created 2007/02/07; Completed 2007/04/05;

PMID: 17284202, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Attention - physiology
Brain Mapping
Cerebral Cortex - blood supply; physiology
Conflict (Psychology)
Female
Humans

Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Neuropsychological Tests
Oxygen - blood
Reaction Time - physiology

Associated Chemicals: Oxygen (7782-44-7)

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.