Top-down modulation of visual feature processing: The role of the inferior frontal junction

By Theodore P. Zanto, Michael T. Rubens, Jacob Bollinger, Adam Gazzaley. 2010

156 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Distinct areas within the visual association cortex are specialized for representing specific stimulus features, such as V4 for color and V5/hMT+ for motion. Recent studies have demonstrated that areas associated with attended features exhibit enhanced cortical activity, whereas those associated with ignored features elicit reduced activity. However, the source of this attentional (or top-down) modulation remains uncertain. A network of fronto-parietal cortical regions has been proposed as the prime candidate underlying this top-down modulation. Here, we evaluate whether there are distinct or overlapping top-down network regions for attention to different stimulus features. To this end, we explored functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) functional connectivity data, electroencephalographic (EEG) source localization, and phase coherence that were obtained while participants attended or ignored motion and color stimuli. Functional connectivity analysis indicated that attention to color relies strongly on prefrontal regions, whereas attention to motion recruits both prefrontal and parietal areas. Although these networks are generally topologically segregated, both color and motion processes recruit right inferior frontal junction (IFJ). However, the IFJ may be more critical for color processing, as only connectivity with V4 predicted the degree of attentional modulation. Source localization at the time range of attentional modulation of the event related potential corroborated the role of the right IFJ and indicated that feature-based, top-down modulation occurs early during processing (< 200 ms post- stimulus onset). Furthermore, long-distance alpha (8–12 Hz) phase coherence between the IFJ and visual cortices may serve as a mechanism underlying anticipatory, top-down modulation of color feature processing.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuroscience

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Citations in the corpus

Beyond Skip Connections: Top-Down Modulation for Object Detection (2016, background): “There is strong evidence of such top-down context, feedback and lateral processing in the human visual pathway [7, 13, 15, 25, 28, 30, 31, 37, 53, 54]; wherein, the topdown signals are responsible for modulating low-level features [13, 15, 37, 53, 54] as well as act as attentional mechanism for sele”
Causal role of the prefrontal cortex in top-down modulation of visual processing and working memory (2011, unknown): “Recent research has identified a region in the PFC, the inferior frontal junction (IFJ), which, on the basis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) functional connectivity analysis, may serve as a source of top-down modulation underlying attention to visual features (that is, color and moti”
Dynamic signatures of the Eureka effect: an EEG study (2021, unknown): “Alpha oscillations have been suggested to serve the suppression of irrelevant information in tasks requiring focusing attention (Clarke et al., 2008; Zanto et al., 2010; Zanto et al., 2011; Klimesch, 2012), to coordinate widely distributed processes by playing the role of a carrier frequency for the”
Frontal theta and posterior alpha oscillations reflect the reactivation of working memory representations following interruptions (2020, background): “…with our hypothesis that frontal theta power in the context of retroactive attentional orienting reflects the ability to exert attentional control on the level of working memory rather than the actual need for such a process (cf. Cavanagh et al., 2012; Cavanagh & Frank, 2014; Zanto et al., 2010).”