Neural dynamics of visuospatial endogenous attention: event-related optical signal evidence from posterior brain areas

Considerable research has been encouraged by the concept of two distinct human attention networks (i.e., a dorsal network, DAN, and a ventral network, VAN) for voluntary deployment of attention and the reorientation to unexpected events, respectively. Despite the general agreement about the main crucial nodes constituting the two networks, the specific contribution of each region and the interplay between the two systems required for flexible attentional control still need to be clarified. Therefore, the current study aimed to describe the neural dynamics of endogenous attentional processes and examine the predictive interactions between and within the two attention systems, by administering a detection and visuospatial version of the Posner paradigm and collecting data by using Fast Optical Imaging, coupled with Granger Analysis. Functional analyses uncovered bilateral dorso-parietal and visual recruitment during both orienting and reorienting. Importantly, a recursive predictive interplay between these dorso-parietal and visual regions was revealed to subserve both attentional processes. Additionally, a specific contribution of the left ventral network was found in allocating attention after the occurrence of a central predictive cue. In contrast, the right ventral network activity, which was actually elicited by the reorienting mechanism only, could indicate post-perceptual updating of the internal task-related mental models.