Causal phase-dependent control of non-spatial attention in human prefrontal cortex

Jeroen Brus (), Joseph A. Heng, Valeriia Beliaeva, Fabian Gonzalez Pinto, Antonino Mario Cassarà, Esra Neufeld, Marcus Grueschow, Lukas Imbach and Rafael Polania Jimenez
Additional contact information
Jeroen Brus: ETH Zurich
Joseph A. Heng: ETH Zurich
Valeriia Beliaeva: ETH Zurich
Fabian Gonzalez Pinto: ETH Zurich
Antonino Mario Cassarà: Foundation for Research on Information Technologies in Society (IT’IS)
Esra Neufeld: Foundation for Research on Information Technologies in Society (IT’IS)
Marcus Grueschow: University of Zurich
Lukas Imbach: Swiss Epilepsy Center (Klinik Lengg)

Nature Human Behaviour, 2024, vol. 8, issue 4, 743-757

Abstract: Abstract Non-spatial attention is a fundamental cognitive mechanism that allows organisms to orient the focus of conscious awareness towards sensory information that is relevant to a behavioural goal while shifting it away from irrelevant stimuli. It has been suggested that attention is regulated by the ongoing phase of slow excitability fluctuations of neural activity in the prefrontal cortex, a hypothesis that has been challenged with no consensus. Here we developed a behavioural and non-invasive stimulation paradigm aiming at modulating slow excitability fluctuations of the inferior frontal junction. Using this approach, we show that non-spatial attention can be selectively modulated as a function of the ongoing phase of exogenously modulated excitability states of this brain structure. These results demonstrate that non-spatial attention relies on ongoing prefrontal excitability states, which are probably regulated by slow oscillatory dynamics, that orchestrate goal-oriented behaviour.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01820-z

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