Biomedical subjects

Neil G Muggleton

Publications and source records attributed to Neil G Muggleton.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

TMS over right posterior parietal cortex induces neglect in a scene-based frame of reference.

Although damage to right posterior parietal cortex (RPPC) produces bias in line bisection, Karnath et al. [Karnath, H.-O., Berger, M. F., Küker, W., & Rorden, C. (2004). The anatomy of spatial neglect based on voxelwise statistical analysis: A study of 140 patients. Cerebral Cortex, 14, 1164-1172] claim that it plays little role in spatial neglect, which is better measured by target cancellation. We used a detection task (approximating cancellation in requiring detection) to investigate this claim by compromising the parietal cortex with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Two outline shapes, one on each side of fixation, were briefly displayed before a mask. The target was a discontinuity in the left or right of the outline of one of these perceptual objects. Subjects indicated position or absence of target as fast as possible. Stimulus-mask onset asynchrony was adjusted individually to yield 75% detection. TMS was delivered over left posterior parietal cortex (LPPC), RPPC and Vertex, with Sham TMS over RPPC as a baseline control. Target detection was near ceiling and fastest at central positions and worst and slowest at the far right. Detection was significantly reduced at the far left position by TMS over RPPC. No other effects were obtained and latency was not affected by TMS. Disruption of RPPC by TMS does produce left neglect as measured by detection. Given the pattern of performance and since it was disrupted on one side of the display rather than on one side of each shape, attention and neglect were in a scene-based rather than object-based reference frame.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Human frontal eye fields and visual search.

Recent physiological recording studies in monkeys have suggested that the frontal eye fields (FEFs) are involved in visual scene analysis even when eye movement commands are not required. We examined this proposed function of the human frontal eye fields during performance of visual search tasks in which difficulty was matched and eye movements were neither necessary nor required. Magnetic stimulation over FEF modulated performance on a conjunction search task and a simple feature search task in which the target was unpredictable from trial to trial, primarily by increasing false alarm responses. Simple feature search with a predictable target was not affected. The results establish that human FEFs are critical to visual selection, regardless of the need to generate a saccade command.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Timing of target discrimination in human frontal eye fields.

Frontal eye field (FEF) neurons discharge in response to behaviorally relevant stimuli that are potential targets for saccades. Distinct visual and motor processes have been dissociated in the FEF of macaque monkeys, but little is known about the visual processing capacity of FEF in humans. We used double-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation [(d)TMS] to investigate the timing of target discrimination during visual conjunction search. We applied dual TMS pulses separated by 40 msec over the right FEF and vertex. These were applied in five timing conditions to sample separate time windows within the first 200 msec of visual processing. (d)TMS impaired search performance, reflected in reduced d' scores. This effect was limited to a time window between 40 and 80 msec after search array onset. These parameters correspond with single-cell activity in FEF that predicts monkeys' behavioral reports on hit, miss, false alarm, and correct rejection trials. Our findings demonstrate a crucial early role for human FEF in visual target discrimination that is independent of saccade programming.

Adult↗