Fiber Pathways of Attention Subnetworks Revealed with Tract-based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) and Probabilistic Tractography

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2013 Nov 14

PMID 24223852

Citations 14

Authors

Haitao Ge

Xuntao Yin

Junhai Xu

Yuchun Tang

Yan Han

Wenjian Xu

Zengchang Pang

Haiwei Meng

Shuwei Liu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

It has been widely accepted that attention can be divided into three subnetworks - alerting, orienting and executive control (EC), and the subnetworks of attention are linked to distinct brain regions. However, the association between specific white matter fibers and the subnetworks of attention is not clear enough. Using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), the white matter connectivity related to the performance of attention was assessed by attention network test (ANT) in 85 healthy adolescents. Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) and probabilistic diffusion tractography analysis demonstrated that cerebellothalamic tract was involved in alerting, while orienting depended upon the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF). In addition, EC was under the control of anterior corona radiata (ACR). Our findings suggest that different fiber pathways are involved in the three distinct subnetworks of attention. The current study will yield more precise information about the structural substrates of attention function and may aid the efforts to understand the neurophysiology of several attention disorders.

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