Forster Bettina, Eimer Martin
Department of Psychology, City University, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB, UK.
Neurosci Lett. 2007 May 29;419(2):142-6. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2007.04.027. Epub 2007 Apr 19.
The premotor theory of attention postulates that during response preparation, attention shifts are elicited towards the goal of a prepared movement. Support for this claim comes from research demonstrating enhanced performance at the location of upcoming saccades. To investigate whether attention shifts occur towards effectors or goal locations during the covert preparation of unimanual movements, we recorded event related brain potentials (ERPs) to task-irrelevant tactile probes that were presented while participants prepared to move one hand towards the index finger of the other hand, as directed by visual response cues presented at the start of each trial. These cues specified either the effector or the goal location of an upcoming movement. The somatosensory N140 component was enhanced when probes were presented to the effector hand relative to the goal hand, regardless of cue instructions. Analogous modulations of the N80 component were only present with effector cues. These results demonstrate a close link between covert response preparation and attention shifts, and strongly suggest that attention shifts are directed to the effector, and not to the goal location of manual movements.
注意力的运动前理论假定，在反应准备过程中，注意力会朝着准备好的动作的目标转移。对这一观点的支持来自于一些研究，这些研究表明在即将进行扫视的位置上表现有所提高。为了研究在单手动作的隐蔽准备过程中，注意力转移是朝向效应器还是目标位置，我们记录了与事件相关的脑电位（ERP），这些脑电位是在参与者按照每次试验开始时呈现的视觉反应线索的指示，准备将一只手移向另一只手的食指时，对与任务无关的触觉探针做出的反应。这些线索指定了即将进行的动作的效应器或目标位置。无论线索指示如何，当探针呈现给效应手而不是目标手时，体感N140成分都会增强。N80成分的类似调制仅在效应器线索出现时出现。这些结果表明了隐蔽反应准备与注意力转移之间的紧密联系，并强烈表明注意力转移是指向效应器，而不是手动动作的目标位置。
