The Ventral Part of Dorsolateral Frontal Area 8A Regulates Visual Attentional Selection and the Dorsal Part Auditory Attentional Selection

The allocation of attention to specific target stimuli is key to pursue a task successfully and attain a goal in an environment that is full of distractions and competing stimuli. Area 8A in the caudal dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is considered a central area for the top-down control of attention and lesion studies in both human and non-human primates have demonstrated that this area is critical for the successful selection of targets according to internal rules. Area 8A can be subdivided into a dorsal part (8Ad) that has unique connections to auditory regions, and a ventral part (8Av) connected with higher-order visual areas. Both parts of area 8A share connections with the parietal multimodal higher order spatial processing region. The present functional neuroimaging study demonstrates that (a) frontal area 8A is critical for the rule-based attentional selection between alternative stimuli that face the individual and (b) that there is a functional dissociation between dorsal area 8A involved in the attentional selection of auditory stimuli and ventral area 8A in the selection of visual stimuli. (C) 2020 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.