Transcranial magnetic stimulation over MT/MST fails to impair judgments of implied motion.

The medial temporal and medial superior temporal cortex (MT/MST) is involved in the processing of visual motion, and fMRI experiments indicate that there is greater activation when subjects view static images that imply motion than when they view images that do not imply motion at all. We applied transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to MT/MST in order to assess the functional necessity of this region for the processing of implied motion represented in static images. Area MT/MST was localized by the use of a TMS-induced misperception of visual motion, and its location was verified through the monitored completion of a motion discrimination task.

Normal attention orienting but abnormal stimulus alerting and conflict effect in combined subtype of ADHD.

Recent pharmacological studies in animals and neuroimaging studies in normal humans suggest that the spatial and nonspatial cues in tasks measuring reflexive attention may be modulated by different neurotransmitter systems. The efficiency with which attention is oriented to explicit spatial cues may be altered by manipulating levels of brain acetylcholine, whereas reactions to nonspatial cues may be influenced by altering brain noradrenaline levels but not acetylcholine levels. In humans, however, previous attention studies have implicated dopamine when either explicit or implicit cueing is used.

Attentional validity effect across the human menstrual cycle varies with basal temperature changes.

This study examined the correlation between covert attention and basal temperature change during menstrual cycle phase in 22 adult females. Previous work showing beneficial effects of estrogen on working memory led us to hypothesize that attentional function would be facilitated at the apparent time of ovulation. Menstrual phase was determined through questionnaires and objective measurements of basal body temperature (BBT) spikes over a 1 month period.

Salivary cotinine levels in human tobacco smokers predict the attentional validity effect size during smoking abstinence.

Rationale: The link between attention and brain cholinergic neurotransmission is widely accepted. Human chronic tobacco smokers maintain high levels of nicotine in plasma and body tissues and show enhanced attentional orienting and other attentional tasks.

Objective: We wished to test whether abstinence from smoking caused levels of the nicotine metabolite cotinine to decline and attentional enhancement to be reduced in a correlated manner.