Object-based facilitation and inhibition from visual orienting in the human split-brain

J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1997 Oct;23(5):1522-32. doi: 10.1037//0096-1523.23.5.1522.

Abstract

Object-based attention was examined in 2 split-brain patients. A precued object could move within a visual field or cross the midline to the opposite field. Normal individuals show an inhibition in detecting signals in the cued object whether it moves within or between fields. Both patients showed this effect when the cued object moved within a visual field. When it crossed the midline into the opposite visual field, however, detection was faster in the cued box. These results reveal both facilitatory and inhibitory effects on attention that are object based and may last for several hundred milliseconds. However, the inhibition requires an intact corpus callosum for interhemispheric transfer, whereas the facilitation is transferred subcortically.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Attention / physiology*
  • Cerebral Cortex / physiopathology
  • Corpus Callosum / physiopathology*
  • Corpus Callosum / surgery
  • Dominance, Cerebral / physiology*
  • Epilepsy / physiopathology
  • Epilepsy / surgery
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Motion Perception / physiology*
  • Neural Inhibition / physiology*
  • Orientation / physiology*
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual / physiology*
  • Postoperative Complications / physiopathology
  • Psychophysics
  • Reaction Time / physiology
  • Reference Values