Neural Control of the Direction of Covert Visual Orienting.
Abstract
In cases of unilateral parietal damage patients have difficulty in handling stimuli contralateral to the lesion. Our study shows a major problem is in disengaging attention from its current focus to deal with targets in a contralateral direction irrespective of the visual field in which the target occurs. This is true for both right and lef-sided lesions. It is likely that the visual field and thus the hemisphere which first receives the target information is also important, but that is not clear in our results. The study confirms a suggestion by Kinsbourne (1977) that each hemisphere directs attention in a contralateral direction. It implies that for directing attention the two hemispheres must be constantly interchanging control and thus sharing information from the two hemifields. These studies suggest the importance of control of the location of covert attention prior to the assessment of lateralization of cognitive functions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 15, 1984
- Accession Number
- ADA145189
Entities
People
- Michael I. Posner
Organizations
- University of Oregon