Attention Drives Synchronization of Alpha and Beta Rhythms between Right Inferior Frontal and Primary Sensory Neocortex

Sacchet, Matthew D.; LaPlante, Roan A.; Wan, Qian; Pritchett, Dominique L.; Lee, Adrian K. C.; Hämäläinen, Matti; Moore, Christopher I.; Kerr, Catherine E.; Jones, Stephanie R. · 2015 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1292-14.2015

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Summary

This study investigates the neural mechanisms underlying attentional control, specifically testing the hypothesis that the right inferior frontal cortex (rIFC) drives synchronization with primary sensory neocortex to inhibit irrelevant stimuli. While the rIFC is known for mediating top-down inhibitory control, and alpha (7–14 Hz) and beta (15–29 Hz) oscillations in sensory areas are linked to suppressing non-attended information, the specific interactions between these regions during inattention remained unclear. The authors aimed to determine if selective phase synchrony between rIFC and primary somatosensory cortex (SI) occurs in these frequency bands during tasks requiring the suppression of distractors. To test this, the researchers used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to record brain activity in 12 healthy adults performing a cued-attention tactile detection task. Participants were cued to attend to either their left hand or left foot and had to detect threshold-level tactile stimuli while suppressing responses to potential distractors in the non-attended location. The study focused on phase-locking values (PLVs) between functionally defined hand representations in SI (hSI) and anatomically defined subregions of the rIFC: the right inferior frontal sulcus (rIFS) and the right inferior frontal junction (rIFJ). Source estimation was performed using minimum norm estimates, and synchrony was analyzed in the post-cue period before stimulus onset. The results revealed distinct, time-dependent synchronization patterns driven by attention. In the alpha band, significant increases in phase synchrony occurred early (200–400 ms after the cue) between hSI and rIFS when attention was directed away from the hand (attend-out condition). In the beta band, significant synchrony emerged later (600–800 ms) between hSI and rIFJ under the same attend-out condition. These effects were specific to the rIFC; no significant differences in phase synchrony were found in proximal control regions, such as the right middle frontal sulcus or right inferior premotor cortex, nor in the left hemisphere counterparts, confirming the lateralization of the effect. Additionally, the study ruled out volume conduction artifacts as the cause of these findings. These findings provide the first evidence of distinct, frequency-specific interactions between primary sensory cortex and rIFC in humans. The results suggest that alpha-band synchrony between rIFS and sensory areas initiates early inhibitory control, while beta-band synchrony involving rIFJ sustains this inhibition closer to stimulus processing. This supports the model that rIFC subregions differentially contribute to top-down attentional control by driving rhythmic synchronization to gate irrelevant sensory information and motor responses.

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• attention selective divided