Hemispheric Asymmetry of Globus Pallidus Relates to Alpha Modulation in Reward-Related Attentional Tasks

Mazzetti, Cecilia; Staudigl, Tobias; Marshall, Tom R.; Zumer, Johanna M.; Fallon, Sean J. und Jensen, Ole (13. November 2019): Hemispheric Asymmetry of Globus Pallidus Relates to Alpha Modulation in Reward-Related Attentional Tasks. In: Journal of Neuroscience, Bd. 39, Nr. 46: S. 9221-9236

Abstract

Whereas subcortical structures such as the basal ganglia have been widely explored in relation to motor control, recent evidence suggests that their mechanisms extend to the domain of attentional switching. We here investigated the subcortical involvement in reward related top-down control of visual alpha-band oscillations (8{\textendash}13 Hz), which have been consistently linked to mechanisms supporting the allocation of visuospatial attention. Given that items associated with contextual saliency (e.g., monetary reward or loss) attract attention, it is not surprising that the acquired salience of visual items further modulates. The executive networks controlling such reward-dependent modulations of oscillatory brain activity have yet to be fully elucidated. Although such networks have been explored in terms of corticocortical interactions, subcortical regions are likely to be involved. To uncover this, we combined MRI and MEG data from 17 male and 11 female participants, investigating whether derived measures of subcortical structural asymmetries predict interhemispheric modulation of alpha power during a spatial attention task. We show that volumetric hemispheric lateralization of globus pallidus (GP) and thalamus (Th) explains individual hemispheric biases in the ability to modulate posterior alpha power. Importantly, for the GP, this effect became stronger when the value saliency parings in the task increased. Our findings suggest that the GP and Th in humans are part of a subcortical executive control network, differentially involved in modulating posterior alpha activity in the presence of saliency. Further investigation aimed at uncovering the interaction between subcortical and neocortical attentional networks would provide useful insight in future studies.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• EU Funded Grant Agreement Number: 802681
• EU-Projekte: Horizon 2020 > ERC Grants > ERC Starting Grant > ERC Grant 802681: DirectThalamus - How the human thalamus guides navigation and memory: a common coding framework built on direct thalamic recordings
• Fakultät: Psychologie und Pädagogik > Department Psychologie
• Fakultätsübergreifende Einrichtungen: Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences (GSN)
• Themengebiete: 100 Philosophie und Psychologie > 150 Psychologie
• ISSN: Journal of Neuroscience
• Sprache: Englisch