Functional imaging of audio-visual selective attention in monkeys and humans: how do lapses in monkey performance affect cross-species correspondences?

Rinne, T., Muers, R. S. , Salo, E., Slater, H. and Petkov, C. I. (2017) Functional imaging of audio-visual selective attention in monkeys and humans: how do lapses in monkey performance affect cross-species correspondences? Cerebral Cortex, 27(6), pp. 3471-3484. (doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhx092) (PMID:28419201) (PMCID:PMC5654311)

Abstract

The cross-species correspondences and differences in how attention modulates brain responses in humans and animal models are poorly understood. We trained 2 monkeys to perform an audio–visual selective attention task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), rewarding them to attend to stimuli in one modality while ignoring those in the other. Monkey fMRI identified regions strongly modulated by auditory or visual attention. Surprisingly, auditory attention-related modulations were much more restricted in monkeys than humans performing the same tasks during fMRI. Further analyses ruled out trivial explanations, suggesting that labile selective-attention performance was associated with inhomogeneous modulations in wide cortical regions in the monkeys. The findings provide initial insights into how audio–visual selective attention modulates the primate brain, identify sources for “lost” attention effects in monkeys, and carry implications for modeling the neurobiology of human cognition with nonhuman animals.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Funding: The Academy of Finland (to T.R.); Wellcome Trust (Investigator Award WT092606AIA to C.I.P.); and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/J009849/1 to C.I.P. joint with Q. Vuong).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Muers, Dr Ross
• Authors: Rinne, T., Muers, R. S., Salo, E., Slater, H., and Petkov, C. I.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience
• Journal Name: Cerebral Cortex
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• ISSN: 1047-3211
• ISSN (Online): 1460-2199
• Published Online: 13 April 2017
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2017 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Cerebral Cortex 27(6): 3471-3484
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License