Activation during endogenous orienting of visual attention using symbolic pointers in the human parietal and frontal cortices: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Brain activation induced by endogenous orienting with a motor response was investigated by functional magnetic resonance imaging. We conducted four cued-attention experiments in which peripheral attention was caused by one of three symbolic pointers (eyes, squares as artificial eyes, or an arrow) that was predictive or not predictive of the target location. Attentional shift caused by the predictive and non-predictive cues induced right and left parietal activation across cue modalities, respectively. Regardless of the predictability of the target location, the eyes and arrow induced left parietal and frontal activation, and the arrow induced left parietal activation more than the squares. These results suggested that the left parieto-frontal network was involved in motor attention caused by natural or familiar pointers, whereas the right parietal cortex was involved in endogenous orienting.