The Lateral Intraparietal Sulcus Takes Viewpoint Changes into Account During Memory-guided Attention in Natural Scenes

Overview

Journal Brain Struct Funct

Specialty Neurology

Date 2021 Feb 3

PMID 33533985

Authors

Ilenia Salsano

Valerio Santangelo

Emiliano Macaluso

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Previous studies demonstrated that long-term memory related to object-position in natural scenes guides visuo-spatial attention during subsequent search. Memory-guided attention has been associated with the activation of memory regions (the medial-temporal cortex) and with the fronto-parietal attention network. Notably, these circuits represent external locations with different frames of reference: egocentric (i.e., eyes/head-centered) in the dorsal attention network vs. allocentric (i.e., world/scene-centered) in the medial temporal cortex. Here we used behavioral measures and fMRI to assess the contribution of egocentric and allocentric spatial information during memory-guided attention. At encoding, participants were presented with real-world scenes and asked to search for and memorize the location of a high-contrast target superimposed in half of the scenes. At retrieval, participants viewed again the same scenes, now all including a low-contrast target. In scenes that included the target at encoding, the target was presented at the same scene-location. Critically, scenes were now shown either from the same or different viewpoint compared with encoding. This resulted in a memory-by-view design (target seen/unseen x same/different view), which allowed us teasing apart the role of allocentric vs. egocentric signals during memory-guided attention. Retrieval-related results showed greater search-accuracy for seen than unseen targets, both in the same and different views, indicating that memory contributes to visual search notwithstanding perspective changes. This view-change independent effect was associated with the activation of the left lateral intra-parietal sulcus. Our results demonstrate that this parietal region mediates memory-guided attention by taking into account allocentric/scene-centered information about the objects' position in the external world.

References

Epstein R, Stephen Higgins J, Thompson-Schill S . Learning places from views: variation in scene processing as a function of experience and navigational ability. J Cogn Neurosci. 2005; 17(1):73-83. DOI: 10.1162/0898929052879987. View

Epstein R, Harris A, Stanley D, Kanwisher N . The parahippocampal place area: recognition, navigation, or encoding?. Neuron. 1999; 23(1):115-25. DOI: 10.1016/s0896-6273(00)80758-8. View

Corbetta M, Akbudak E, Conturo T, Snyder A, Ollinger J, Drury H . A common network of functional areas for attention and eye movements. Neuron. 1998; 21(4):761-73. DOI: 10.1016/s0896-6273(00)80593-0. View

Maldjian J, Laurienti P, Burdette J . Precentral gyrus discrepancy in electronic versions of the Talairach atlas. Neuroimage. 2004; 21(1):450-5. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.09.032. View

Gilmore A, Nelson S, McDermott K . A parietal memory network revealed by multiple MRI methods. Trends Cogn Sci. 2015; 19(9):534-43. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2015.07.004. View

St Jacques P, Conway M, Lowder M, Cabeza R . Watching my mind unfold versus yours: an fMRI study using a novel camera technology to examine neural differences in self-projection of self versus other perspectives. J Cogn Neurosci. 2010; 23(6):1275-84. PMC: 3132549. DOI: 10.1162/jocn.2010.21518. View

Sulpizio V, Committeri G, Lambrey S, Berthoz A, Galati G . Selective role of lingual/parahippocampal gyrus and retrosplenial complex in spatial memory across viewpoint changes relative to the environmental reference frame. Behav Brain Res. 2013; 242:62-75. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2012.12.031. View

Fink G, Halligan P, Marshall J, Frith C, Frackowiak R, Dolan R . Where in the brain does visual attention select the forest and the trees?. Nature. 1996; 382(6592):626-8. DOI: 10.1038/382626a0. View

Maunsell J . Neuronal representations of cognitive state: reward or attention?. Trends Cogn Sci. 2004; 8(6):261-5. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2004.04.003. View

10.

Sestieri C, Shulman G, Corbetta M . Attention to memory and the environment: functional specialization and dynamic competition in human posterior parietal cortex. J Neurosci. 2010; 30(25):8445-56. PMC: 2906749. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4719-09.2010. View

11.

Hollingworth A, Williams C, Henderson J . To see and remember: visually specific information is retained in memory from previously attended objects in natural scenes. Psychon Bull Rev. 2002; 8(4):761-8. DOI: 10.3758/bf03196215. View

12.

Friston K, Penny W, Phillips C, Kiebel S, Hinton G, Ashburner J . Classical and Bayesian inference in neuroimaging: theory. Neuroimage. 2002; 16(2):465-83. DOI: 10.1006/nimg.2002.1090. View

13.

Epstein R, Parker W, Feiler A . Where am I now? Distinct roles for parahippocampal and retrosplenial cortices in place recognition. J Neurosci. 2007; 27(23):6141-9. PMC: 6672165. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0799-07.2007. View

14.

Byrne P, Becker S, Burgess N . Remembering the past and imagining the future: a neural model of spatial memory and imagery. Psychol Rev. 2007; 114(2):340-75. PMC: 2678675. DOI: 10.1037/0033-295X.114.2.340. View

15.

Corbetta M, Shulman G . Control of goal-directed and stimulus-driven attention in the brain. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2002; 3(3):201-15. DOI: 10.1038/nrn755. View

16.

Rosen M, Stern C, Michalka S, Devaney K, Somers D . Influences of Long-Term Memory-Guided Attention and Stimulus-Guided Attention on Visuospatial Representations within Human Intraparietal Sulcus. J Neurosci. 2015; 35(32):11358-63. PMC: 4532763. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1055-15.2015. View

17.

Wheeler M, Buckner R . Functional-anatomic correlates of remembering and knowing. Neuroimage. 2004; 21(4):1337-49. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.11.001. View

18.

Walther D, Caddigan E, Fei-Fei L, Beck D . Natural scene categories revealed in distributed patterns of activity in the human brain. J Neurosci. 2009; 29(34):10573-81. PMC: 2774133. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0559-09.2009. View

19.

Rosen M, Stern C, Devaney K, Somers D . Cortical and Subcortical Contributions to Long-Term Memory-Guided Visuospatial Attention. Cereb Cortex. 2017; 28(8):2935-2947. PMC: 6041969. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhx172. View

20.

Cabeza R, Ciaramelli E, Olson I, Moscovitch M . The parietal cortex and episodic memory: an attentional account. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2008; 9(8):613-25. PMC: 2692883. DOI: 10.1038/nrn2459. View