Parietal Cortex Mediates Voluntary Control of Spatial and Nonspatial Auditory Attention

Abstract

The human posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is widely believed to subserve visually guided spatial behavior, including the control of visual attention, eye movements, and reaching. To explore the generality of this function, we measured human brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging during spatial and nonspatial shifts of auditory attention. Both spatial and nonspatial shifts of auditory attention evoked transient activity in the medial superior parietal cortex. These results reveal that the PPC is not exclusively devoted to visuospatial behavior; similar regions within a dorsomedial subcompartment provide a domain-independent reconfiguration signal for the control of spatial and nonspatial attention in both visual and nonvisual modalities.