Investigations of Spatial Attention

Abstract This chapter will discuss the combined use of transcranial stimulation and visual psychophysics tasks such as visual search in the scientific investigation of human attention. Historically, the identification of the neural network involved in spatial attention have been identified via neuropsychology. However, in latter years, discrete manipulation of nodes on this network using neurostimulation provides a window not only on whether a region is critically involved in the processing of such tasks, but when they are involved. There is also the opportunity to understand the directionality of communication between these regions and indeed their contingency upon one another. The critical involvement of the posterior parietal lobe, V5, superior temporal gyrus, the frontal eye fields, and lateral occipital regions are discussed with respect to their crucial, distinctive, and shared roles in visuospatial attention.