Anatomical substrates of the alerting, orienting and executive control components of attention: focus on the posterior parietal lobe.

Yin, Xuntao; Zhao, Lu; Xu, Junhai; Evans, Alan C; Fan, Lingzhong; Ge, Haitao; Tang, Yuchun; Khundrakpam, Budhachandra; Wang, Jian; Liu, Shuwei · 2012 · DOAJ

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0050590

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Summary

This study investigates the specific anatomical substrates within the posterior parietal lobe (PPL) that support the three distinct components of attention: alerting, orienting, and executive control. While the PPL is broadly recognized as critical for visuospatial attention, the unique roles of its cortical subregions and underlying white matter (WM) remain unclear. The authors hypothesized that distinct areas and features within the PPL are associated with different attention components, aiming to clarify the structural organization of these networks in healthy individuals. The researchers recruited 36 healthy young adults (aged 17–20) and collected structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data. Attention performance was assessed using the Attention Network Test (ANT), which isolates alerting, orienting, and executive control through cued reaction time and flanker tasks. Behavioral data were analyzed using ratio scores to isolate attention effects from overall reaction times. Structural analyses included measuring cortical thickness and surface area in five predefined PPL subregions (superior parietal lobule, inferior parietal lobule, supramarginal gyrus, angular gyrus, and precuneus) using the CIVET pipeline and Automated Anatomical Labelling (AAL) template. WM integrity was evaluated using DTI parameters (fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, radial diffusivity) via tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) and probabilistic diffusion tractography. The results revealed distinct structure-behavior relationships for each attention component. Orienting performance was significantly linked to the cortical thickness of the right inferior parietal lobule (IPL) and angular gyrus, as well as the integrity of WM connectivity between the bilateral IPLs. Specifically, probabilistic tractography demonstrated that WM connections between the left and right IPL mediated orienting efficiency. Executive control scores were significantly associated with WM diffusion metrics (mean and radial diffusivity) in the right supramarginal gyrus. In contrast, no significant correlations were found between parietal cortical structures and alerting performance. Instead, TBSS analysis indicated that alerting was correlated with the fractional anisotropy of local WM connecting the right thalamus and the supplementary motor area, a pathway confirmed by tractography. These findings conclude that distinct areas and features within the PPL are associated with different components of attention, supporting the heterogeneity of the attention network. The study provides evidence that orienting relies on the right IPL and interhemispheric connections, executive control involves the right supramarginal gyrus, and alerting is mediated by thalamo-cortical pathways rather than parietal cortex. This detailed mapping of anatomical substrates enhances the understanding of how the PPL contributes to visuospatial attention and may inform the study of attention-related disorders.

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• attention selective divided