PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Xiaomo Chen
AU  - Marc Zirnsak
AU  - Gabriel M. Vega
AU  - Eshan Govil
AU  - Stephen G. Lomber
AU  - Tirin Moore
TI  - The Contribution of Parietal Cortex to Visual Salience
AID  - 10.1101/619643
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 619643
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/05/22/619643.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/05/22/619643.full
AB  - Unique stimuli stand out. In spite of an abundance of competing sensory stimuli, the detection of the most salient ones occurs without effort, and that detection contributes to the guidance of adaptive behavior. Neurons sensitive to the salience of visual stimuli are widespread throughout the primate visual system and are thought to shape the selection of visual targets. However, mechanisms underlying the representation of salience remain elusive. Among the possible candidates are areas within posterior parietal cortex, which appear to be crucial in the control of visual attention and are thought to play a unique role in representing stimulus salience. Here we show that reversible inactivation of parietal cortex not only selectively reduces the representation of visual salience within the brain, but it also diminishes the influence of salience on visually guided behavior. These results demonstrate a distinct contribution of parietal areas to vision and visual attention.