Modulation of reaching by spatial attention

Rossella Breveglieri; Riccardo Brandolani; Stefano Diomedi; Markus Lappe; Claudio Galletti; Patrizia Fattori

doi:10.3389/fnint.2024.1393690

Modulation of reaching by spatial attention

Front Integr Neurosci. 2024 May 15:18:1393690. doi: 10.3389/fnint.2024.1393690. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Rossella Breveglieri¹, Riccardo Brandolani^{1

2}, Stefano Diomedi¹, Markus Lappe³, Claudio Galletti¹, Patrizia Fattori¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
² Center for Neuroscience, University of Camerino, Camerino, Italy.
³ Department of Psychology, Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.

Abstract

Attention is needed to perform goal-directed vision-guided movements. We investigated whether the direction of covert attention modulates movement outcomes and dynamics. Right-handed and left-handed volunteers attended to a spatial location while planning a reach toward the same hemifield, the opposite one, or planned a reach without constraining attention. We measured behavioral variables as outcomes of ipsilateral and contralateral reaching and the tangling of behavioral trajectories obtained through principal component analysis as a measure of the dynamics of motor control. We found that the direction of covert attention had significant effects on the dynamics of motor control, specifically during contralateral reaching. Data suggest that motor control was more feedback-driven when attention was directed leftward than when attention was directed rightward or when it was not constrained, irrespectively of handedness. These results may help to better understand the neural bases of asymmetrical neurological diseases like hemispatial neglect.

Keywords: Principal Components Analysis; covert attention; hemispatial effects; left handed people; reaching; right-handed people.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Future and Emerging Technologies grant agreement No. 951910- MAIA and from the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme under Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101086206 — PLACES. This article reflects only the author’s view and the Agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.