Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

A lateralized brain network for visuospatial attention

Nature Neuroscience volume 14, pages 1245–1246 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

An Erratum to this article was published on 23 November 2011

This article has been updated

Abstract

Right hemisphere dominance for visuospatial attention is characteristic of most humans, but its anatomical basis remains unknown. We report the first evidence in humans for a larger parieto-frontal network in the right than left hemisphere, and a significant correlation between the degree of anatomical lateralization and asymmetry of performance on visuospatial tasks. Our results suggest that hemispheric specialization is associated with an unbalanced speed of visuospatial processing.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: The three branches of the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF I, II and III).
Figure 2: Correlations between anatomical and behavioral lateralizations.

Change history

  • 13 October 2011

    In the version of this article initially published, the institute identifier was omitted from the INSERM affiliation of author Michel Thiebaut de Schotten. The correct affiliation should read Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) S 975. The error has been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

References

  1. Sperry, R.W. Lateral Specialization in the Surgically Separated Hemispheres (Rockefeller Univ. Press, New York, 1974).

  2. Mesulam, M.M. Ann. Neurol. 10, 309–325 (1981).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Beis, J.M. et al. Neurology 63, 1600–1605 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Heilman, K.M. & Van Den Abell, T. Neurology 30, 327–330 (1980).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Buschman, T.J. & Miller, E.K. Science 315, 1860–1862 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Schmahmann, J.D. & Pandya, D.N. Fiber Pathways of the Brain (Oxford Univ. Press, New York, 2006).

  7. Makris, N. et al. Cereb. Cortex 15, 854–869 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Corbetta, M. & Shulman, G.L. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 3, 201–215 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Dell'Acqua, F. et al. Neuroimage 49, 1446–1458 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Petrides, M. & Pandya, D.N. J. Comp. Neurol. 228, 105–116 (1984).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Bowers, D. & Heilman, K.M. Neuropsychologia 18, 491–498 (1980).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Jewell, G. & McCourt, M.E. Neuropsychologia 38, 93–110 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Hursh, J.B. Am. J. Physiol. 127, 131–139 (1939).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Waxman, S.G. & Bennett, M.V. Nat. New Biol. 238, 217–219 (1972).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Posner, M.I. Q. J. Exp. Psychol. 32, 3–25 (1980).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the members of the Natbrainlab, D.H. ffytche, P. Bartolomeo and F. Doricchi for discussion. This work was supported by the Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowships for Career Development (FP7), the Bettencourt–Schueller Foundation, the Guy's and St Thomas Charity, the Wellcome Trust, the UK National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at the South London and Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust and Institute of Psychiatry, King's College and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche of France (project CAFORPFC, no. ANR-09-RPDOC-004-01 and project HM-TC, no. ANR-09-EMER-006).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Michel Thiebaut de Schotten and Flavio Dell'Acqua: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Natbrainlab, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK

    Michel Thiebaut de Schotten, Flavio Dell'Acqua, Stephanie J Forkel, Declan G M Murphy & Marco Catani

  2. INSERM–Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) S 975 Groupe Hospitalier (GH) Pitié–Salpêtrière, Paris, France

    Michel Thiebaut de Schotten

  3. Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK

    Michel Thiebaut de Schotten, Flavio Dell'Acqua, Andrew Simmons & Marco Catani

  4. National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health, London, UK

    Flavio Dell'Acqua & Andrew Simmons

  5. Medical Research Council Centre for Neurodegeneration Research, King's College London, London, UK

    Andrew Simmons

  6. Department of Neurosurgery, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Francesco Vergani

Authors
  1. Michel Thiebaut de Schotten
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Flavio Dell'Acqua
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Stephanie J Forkel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Andrew Simmons
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Francesco Vergani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Declan G M Murphy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Marco Catani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

M.T.d.S. conceived and coordinated the study, reviewed and collected neuropsychological data, performed the tractography dissections, helped with the post-mortem dissections and wrote the manuscript. F.D. developed the spherical deconvolution algorithm, collected and preprocessed the neuroimaging data before the dissections and helped drafting the manuscript. S.J.F. helped collecting neuropsychological data and drafting the manuscript. A.S. and D.G.M.M. provided funding for the neuroimaging data and helped to draft the manuscript. F.V. helped drafting the manuscript and performed the post-mortem dissections. M.C. helped to conceive and coordinate the study. M.C. also wrote the manuscript and performed the post-mortem dissections.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michel Thiebaut de Schotten.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figures 1–8, Supplementary Tables 1 and 2, Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Results and Supplementary Note (PDF 3625 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

de Schotten, M., Dell'Acqua, F., Forkel, S. et al. A lateralized brain network for visuospatial attention. Nat Neurosci 14, 1245–1246 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2905

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2905

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing