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.

Attending to local form while ignoring global aspects depends on handedness: evidence from TMS

Nature Neuroscience volume 8, pages 276–277 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

Our perceptions of the whole and of the parts of a visual stimulus are mediated by different brain regions. We used low-frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to show for the first time that opposite, homologous regions in the two hemispheres are involved in attending to local parts for left- and right-handed individuals. The brain regions that focus on the 'trees' while ignoring the 'forest' are switched as a function of handedness.

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

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Typical display sequence showing congruent and incongruent compound stimuli.
Figure 2: Performance (mean reaction time (RT) ± s.e.m.) for global and local identification pre- and post-TMS trains across stimulus category.

References

  1. Navon, D. Cog. Psych. 9, 353–383 (1977).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Fink, G. et al. Nature 382, 626–628 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Delis, D.C., Robertson, L.C. & Efron, R. Neuropsychologia 24, 205–214 (1986).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Robertson, L.C., Lamb, M. & Knight, R. J. Neurosci. 8, 3757–3769 (1988).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Marshall, J.C. & Halligan, P.W. Nature 373, 521–523 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Knecht, S. et al. Brain 123, 2512–2518 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Laeng, B. & Peters, M. Neuropsychologia 33, 421–439 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Pascual-Leone, A., Walsh, V. & Rothwell, J. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 10, 232–237 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Fink, G. et al. Brain 120, 1779–1791 (1997).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Shalev, L., Humphreys, G.W. & Mevorach, C. Cogn. Neuro. (in the press).

  11. Chen, R. et al. Neurology 48, 1398–1403 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Hilgetag, C.C., Theorat, H. & Pascual-Leone, A. Nat. Neurosci. 4, 953–957 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant from the UK Medical Research Council.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Behavioural Brain Sciences Centre, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT, Birmingham, UK

    Carmel Mevorach & Glyn W Humphreys

  2. Department of Education and Psychology, The Open University Israel, 108 Ravutski St., Ra'anana, Israel

    Lilach Shalev

Authors
  1. Carmel Mevorach
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Glyn W Humphreys
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Lilach Shalev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carmel Mevorach.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mevorach, C., Humphreys, G. & Shalev, L. Attending to local form while ignoring global aspects depends on handedness: evidence from TMS. Nat Neurosci 8, 276–277 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1400

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1400

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