Ocular Dominance and Functional Asymmetry in Visual Attention Networks

Abstract

Purpose The dorsal attention network (DAN) and the ventral attention network (VAN) are known to support visual attention, but the influences of ocular dominance on the attention networks are unclear. We aimed to explore how visual cortical asymmetry of the attention networks correlate with neurophysiological oscillation and connectivity markers of attentional processes. Methods An oddball task with concentric circle stimuli of three different sizes (i.e., spot size of 5°, 20°, or 30° of visual angle) was used to vary task difficulty. Event-related oscillations and interareal communication were tested with an electroencephalogram-based visual evoked components as a function of ocular dominance in 30 healthy subjects. Results Accuracy rates were higher in the dominant eyes compared with the nondominant eyes. Compared with the nondominant eyes, the dominant eyes had higher theta, low-alpha, and low-beta powers and lower high-alpha powers within the nodes of VAN and DAN. Furthermore, visual information processed by the dominant and nondominant eye had different fates, that is, the dominant eyes mainly relied on theta and low-alpha connectivity within both the VAN and the DAN, whereas the nondominant eyes mainly relied on theta connectivity within the VAN and high-alpha connectivity within the DAN. The difference in accuracy rate between the two eyes was correlated with the low-alpha oscillations in the anterior DAN area and low-alpha connectivity of the left DAN. Conclusions The ocular dominance processing and interareal communication reveal a cortical asymmetry underlying attention, and this reflects a two-way modulatory mechanism within attention networks in the human brain.

Changes in effective connectivity during the visual-motor integration tasks: a preliminary f-NIRS study

“…Therefore, the two attention control networks integrate more strongly to support this task more efficiently. These results also provide converging evidence for the theory that the DAN and VAN are not isolated in the process of controlling attention but interact to achieve dynamic control of attention [ 45 , 54 ].…”

Distractor-induced saccade trajectory curvature reveals visual contralateral bias with respect to the dominant eye

“…This was confirmed by Coren and Porac 8 and Coren 9 . Later, Shneor and Hochstein 10 , 11 demonstrated that the DE has an advantage in more elaborate tasks like visual feature or conjunction search, which has also been verified recently by Liu et al 12 . At the neuronal level, stimulation of the DE resulted in higher and shorter visually evoked potentials when using electroencephalography 13 (see also 14 ) and in larger visual areas activation when using functional imagery 15 .…”

Functional connectivity of brain networks with three monochromatic wavelengths: a pilot study using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging

“…However, given that most tasks require regions that belong to the SAL and DAN networks, it is not clear what would be the performance in a visually oriented task. It is known that the DAN is activated by visual-spatial attention tasks 38 , connected to the ventral attention network 39 and related to visual attention modulated from the ocular dominance 40 . Also, it has been shown that DAN FC changes after acute stress exposure 41 and in sleep problems 42 .…”