The role of the superior temporal cortex in the brain network of attention. A normalized perfusion MRI study in patients with visual extinction and basal ganglia strokes
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1
Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Germany
Visual extinction is an important clinical phenomenon and an intriguing defect of awareness which refers to the insuccess to report a stimulus presented in one side of the visual field when a competing stimulus is showed simultaneously in the contralateral side. So far, a number of observations have been conducted to identify the cortical and subcortical areas that, when damaged or inactivated, determine visual extinction. Nontheless, there is still some controversy regarding this issue due to the numerous areas that seem to be involved in visual extinction. Indeed, independent observations report lesions affecting the parietal cortex or the visual association cortex, subcortical structures (i.e. the posterior and anterior periventricular white matter, posterior limb and genu of the internal capsule, thalamus, lenticular nuclei and caudate nucleus) or the temporo-parietal junction (i.e. ventral inferior parietal lobule, caudal superior temporal and middle temporal gyri). Furthermore, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) experiments show that inhibitory pulses to the caudal superior temporal gyrus or to the posterior parietal cortex induce visual extinction-like performance in healthy volounteers. Hoping to contribute to clarify which area is involved in visual extinction, in the present study we identified the dysfunctional cortical regions induced by basal ganglia strokes in patients with visual extinction. In a patient group, we examined the common area(s) of structurally intact but dysfunctional cortical tissue by using spatial normalization of perfusion-weighted imaging (PWI) maps as well as symmetric voxel-wise inter-hemispheric comparisons in order to identify brain regions that are receiving enough blood supply to remain structurally intact, but not enough to function normally. We found that patients with visual extinction and strokes centring on the right basal ganglia have abnormal perfusion in the intact cortex of the caudal superior temporal gyrus. In agreement with our results, damage or inhibition of this area has previously been described to provoke visual extinction or extinction-like behaviour. The results confirm that visual extinction may be caused by the dysfunction of this specific cortical area.
Conference:
10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience, Bodrum, Türkiye, 1 Sep - 5 Sep, 2008.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Attention
Citation:
Ticini
L
(2008). The role of the superior temporal cortex in the brain network of attention. A normalized perfusion MRI study in patients with visual extinction and basal ganglia strokes.
Conference Abstract:
10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience.
doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.01.108
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Received:
03 Dec 2008;
Published Online:
03 Dec 2008.
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Correspondence:
Luca Ticini, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen, Germany, luca.ticini@klinikum.uni-tuebingen.de