Unconscious activation of visual cortex in the damaged right hemisphere of a parietal patient with extinction
Abstract
Visual extinction is a sign classically associated with right parietal damage. The patient can see a single stimulus presented in the ipsilesional or contralesional visual field, but is characteristically unaware of the same contralesional stimulus during simultaneous stimulation of both fields. The ipsilesional stimulus is said to 'extinguish' the contralesional stimulus from awareness during bilateral stimulation, perhaps due to a pathological bias in attention towards the ipsilesional side. Recent psychophysical evidence suggests that, although extinguished stimuli are not consciously seen, they may undergo residual processing and exert implicit effects on performance. However, the neural structures mediating such residual processing for extinguished stimuli remain unknown. Here we studied the neural activity evoked by an extinguished visual stimulus, using event-related functional MRI (fMRI), in a patient with circumscribed right inferior parietal damage and profound left-sided extinction. Monochrome objects (faces or houses) were presented in the left or right field, either unilaterally or bilaterally on each trial, with the patient indicating by button press whether he saw an object on the left, the right or on both sides. He usually saw only the right object on bilateral trials, yet the fMRI data showed activation of visual cortex contralateral to the extinguished left stimulus on these trials (compared with right-only stimulation), in both striate and early extrastriate areas of the right hemisphere. This activity had a similar location and time-course to that resulting from a single stimulus in the left versus right visual field. Cortical pathways involved in the normal processing of a single seen stimulus can thus still be activated by an unseen, extinguished stimulus after right parietal damage. Comparison of fMRI responses for faces versus houses revealed some category-specific activation for extinguished stimuli in right fusiform regions, but only at low statistical threshold. These results are discussed in terms of theoretical accounts for parietal extinction and, more generally, for the neural substrates of visual awareness.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In neglect, information from the neglected side is still processed to some degree and the visual system is still active to the highest levels of processing.
“Yet, information from the neglected side is still processed to some degree (Marshall and Halligan, 1988), and the visual system is still active to the highest levels of processing (Rees et al., 2000; Vuilleumier et al., 2002).”
From The Attention Schema Theory: A Foundation for Engineering Artificial Consciousness (2017) · cites this paper as Rees et al., 2000
Cites
Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain
Talairach, J., & Tournoux, P. (1988) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 11,798 · see citing works
Statistical parametric maps in functional imaging: A general linear approach
Friston, K. J., Holmes, A. P., Worsley, K. J., Poline, J. ‐., Frith, C. D., & Frackowiak, R. S. J. (1994) · Human Brain Mapping · doi:10.1002/hbm.460020402 · Cited by 9,688 · see citing works
Neural Mechanisms of Selective Visual Attention
Desimone, R., & Duncan, J. (1995) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev.ne.18.030195.001205 · Cited by 8,388 · see citing works
The fusiform face area: a module in human extrastriate cortex specialized for face perception
Kanwisher, N., McDermott, J., & Chun, M. M. (1997) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.17-11-04302.1997 · Cited by 7,738 · see citing works
Spatial registration and normalization of images
Friston, K. J., Ashburner, J., Frith, C., Poline, J.-B., Heather, J. D., & Frackowiak, R. S. J. (1995) · Human Brain Mapping · doi:10.1002/hbm.460030303 · Cited by 3,744 · see citing works
Event-Related fMRI: Characterizing Differential Responses
Friston, K. J., Fletcher, P. C., Josephs, O., Holmes, A., Rugg, M. D., & Turner, R. (1998) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1006/nimg.1997.0306 · Cited by 2,017 · see citing works
VISUAL CAPACITY IN THE HEMIANOPIC FIELD FOLLOWING A RESTRICTED OCCIPITAL ABLATION
WEISKRANTZ, L., WARRINGTON, E. K., SANDERS, M. D., & MARSHALL, J. (1974) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/97.1.709 · Cited by 1,465 · see citing works
Heilman, K. M., Valenstein, E., & Watson, R. T. (2000) · Seminars in Neurology · doi:10.1055/s-2000-13179 · Cited by 1,446 · see citing works
The Correlation Theory of Brain Function
von der Malsburg, C. (1994) · Physics of neural networks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-4320-5_2 · Cited by 1,086 · see citing works
Dissociation of object and spatial visual processing pathways in human extrastriate cortex.
Haxby, J. V., Grady, C. L., Horwitz, B., Ungerleider, L. G., Mishkin, M., Carson, R. E., Herscovitch, P., Schapiro, M. B., & Rapoport, S. I. (1991) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.88.5.1621 · Cited by 1,041 · see citing works
Principles of behavioral neurology
Mesulam, M.-M. (1985) · Davis eBooks · Cited by 976 · see citing works
Are we aware of neural activity in primary visual cortex?
Crick, F., & Koch, C. (1995) · Nature · doi:10.1038/375121a0 · Cited by 932 · see citing works
Interhemispheric Synchronization of Oscillatory Neuronal Responses in Cat Visual Cortex
Engel, A. K., Peter König, B., Kreiter, A. K., & Singer, W. (1991) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.252.5009.1177 · Cited by 914 · see citing works
Distributed representation of objects in the human ventral visual pathway
Ishai, A., Ungerleider, L. G., Martin, A. D., Schouten, J. L., & Haxby, J. V. (1999) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.96.16.9379 · Cited by 885 · see citing works
Heilman, K. M., Valenstein, E., & Watson, R. (1984) · Seminars in Neurology · doi:10.1055/s-2008-1041551 · Cited by 835 · see citing works
Vallar, G., & Perani, D. (1986) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/0028-3932(86)90001-1 · Cited by 834 · see citing works
Residual Visual Function after Brain Wounds involving the Central Visual Pathways in Man
Pöppel, E., Held, R. M., & Frost, D. O. (1973) · Nature · doi:10.1038/243295a0 · Cited by 800 · see citing works
Blindsight: A Case Study and Implications
Weiskrantz, L. (1986) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 773 · see citing works
Face-sensitive regions in human extrastriate cortex studied by functional MRI.
Puce, A., Allison, T., Gore, J., & McCarthy, G. (1995) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.1995.74.3.1192 · Cited by 741 · see citing works
(2013) · Psychology Press eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203765258 · Cited by 600 · see citing works
Parietal neglect and visual awareness
Driver, J., & Mattingley, J. B. (1998) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/217 · Cited by 474 · see citing works
Covert Visual Attention Modulates Face-Specific Activity in the Human Fusiform Gyrus: fMRI Study
Wojciulik, E., Kanwisher, N., & Driver, J. (1998) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.1998.79.3.1574 · Cited by 451 · see citing works
Stoerig, P. (1997) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/120.3.535 · Cited by 450 · see citing works
The Riddoch syndrome: insights into the neurobiology of conscious vision
Zeki, S. (1998) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/121.1.25 · Cited by 415 · see citing works
Orientational Bias Model of Unilateral Neglect: Evidence from Attentional Gradients Within Hemispace
Kinsbourne, M. (2013) · doi:10.4324/9780203765258-9 · Cited by 406 · see citing works
Converging operations in the study of visual selective attention.
(1996) · American Psychological Association eBooks · doi:10.1037/10187-000 · Cited by 396 · see citing works
Parietal Lobe Contributions to Orientation in 3D Space
(1997) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-60661-8 · Cited by 385 · see citing works
Conscious visual perception without VI
Barbur, J. L., Watson, J. D. G., Frackowiak, R. S. J., & Zeki, S. (1993) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/116.6.1293 · Cited by 349 · see citing works
Domany, E., Hammen, J. L. V., & Schulten, K. (1991) · CERN Document Server (European Organization for Nuclear Research) · doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-0723-8 · Cited by 334 · see citing works
Visual Processing without Awareness: Evidence from Unilateral Neglect
Berti, A., & Rizzolatti, G. (1992) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/jocn.1992.4.4.345 · Cited by 307 · see citing works
Covariation of activity in visual and prefrontal cortex associated with subjective visual perception
Lumer, E. D., & Rees, G. E. (1999) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.96.4.1669 · Cited by 275 · see citing works
Self-citationPreattentive Filling-in of Visual Surfaces in Parietal Extinction
Mattingley, J. B., Davis, G. J., & Driver, J. (1997) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.275.5300.671 · Cited by 232 · see citing works
Anatomical correlates of visual and tactile extinction in humans: a clinical CT scan study.
Vallar, G., Rusconi, M. L., Bignamini, L., Geminiani, G. C., & Perani, D. (1994) · Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry · doi:10.1136/jnnp.57.4.464 · Cited by 199 · see citing works
Visual Extinction and Stimulus Repetition
Baylis, G. C., Driver, J., & Rafal, R. D. (1993) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/jocn.1993.5.4.453 · Cited by 186 · see citing works
Semantic processing in the neglected visual field: Evidence from a lexical decision task
McGlinchey, R. E., Milberg, W., Verfaellie, M. H., ALEXANDER, M. P., & Kilduff, P. T. (1993) · Cognitive Neuropsychology · doi:10.1080/02643299308253457 · Cited by 185 · see citing works
The spatial distribution of visual attention in hemineglect and extinction patients
Smania, N. (1998) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/121.9.1759 · Cited by 177 · see citing works
The asynchrony of consciousness
Zeki, S., & Bartels, A. (1998) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.1998.0475 · Cited by 121 · see citing works
Extinction as a Paradigm Measure of Attentional Bias and Restricted Capacity Following Brain Injury
Driver, J., Mattingley, J. B., Rorden, C., & Davis, G. J. (1997) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-60661-8_23 · Cited by 100 · see citing works
Implicit redundant-targets effect in visual extinction
Marzi, C. A., Smania, N., Martini, M. C., et al. (1996) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/0028-3932(95)00059-3 · Cited by 85 · see citing works
Hemianopia, hemianesthesia, and spatial neglect
Vallar, G., Sandroni, P., Rusconi, M. L., & Barbieri, S. (1991) · Neurology · doi:10.1212/wnl.41.12.1918 · Cited by 82 · see citing works
Electrophysiological Correlates of Conscious Vision: Evidence from Unilateral Extinction
Marzi, C. A., Girelli, M., Miniussi, C., Smania, N., & Maravita, A. (2000) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/089892900562471 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Activating response codes by stimuli in the neglected visual field.
Cohen, A., Ivry, R. B., Rafal, R. D., et al. (1995) · Neuropsychology · doi:10.1037/0894-4105.9.2.165 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Visual neglect and left-sided context effects
Audet, T., Bub, D. N., & Lecours, A. (1991) · Brain and Cognition · doi:10.1016/0278-2626(91)90082-j · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Early visual processing in neglect patients: A study with steady-state VEPs
Angelelli, P., Luca, M. D., & Spinelli, D. (1996) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/0028-3932(96)00036-x · Cited by 44 · see citing works
What can visual neglect and extinction reveal about the extent of "preattentive" processing?
Driver, J. (2004) · American Psychological Association eBooks · doi:10.1037/10187-006 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Pattern-Reversal Visual-Evoked Potentials in Patients with Hemineglect Syndrome
Viggiano, M. P., Spinelli, D., & Mecacci, L. (1995) · Brain and Cognition · doi:10.1006/brcg.1995.1002 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness
O'Regan, J. K., & Noë, A. (2001) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x01000115 · Cited by 3,126 · see citing works
Towards a cognitive neuroscience of consciousness: basic evidence and a workspace framework
Dehaene, S. (2001) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/s0010-0277(00)00123-2 · Cited by 2,498 · see citing works
Cerebral mechanisms of word masking and unconscious repetition priming
Dehaene, S., Naccache, L., Cohen, L., Bihan, D. L., Mangin, J.-F., Poline, J.-B., & Rivière, D. (2001) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/89551 · Cited by 1,305 · see citing works
Spatial Neglect and Attention Networks
Corbetta, M., & Shulman, G. L. (2011) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev-neuro-061010-113731 · Cited by 1,318 · see citing works
Consciousness, accessibility, and the mesh between psychology and neuroscience
Block, N. (2007) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x07002786 · Cited by 1,146 · see citing works
Neural bases of the non-conscious perception of emotional signals
Tamietto, M., & de Gelder, B. (2010) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn2889 · Cited by 1,042 · see citing works
Neural correlates of consciousness in humans
Rees, G., Kreiman, G., & Koch, C. (2002) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn783 · Cited by 742 · see citing works
Self-citationThe neurobehavioral nature of fishes and the question of awareness and pain.
Rose, J. D. (2002) · Reviews in Fisheries Science · doi:10.1080/20026491051668 · Cited by 413 · see citing works
Vuilleumier, P., & Driver, J. (2007) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2007.2092 · Cited by 397 · see citing works
Letter Binding and Invariant Recognition of Masked Words: Behavioral and Neuroimaging Evidence
Dehaene, S., Jobert, A., Naccache, L., Ciuciu, P., Poline, J.-B., Le Bihan, D., & Cohen, L. (2004) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00674.x · Cited by 356 · see citing works
The disunity of consciousness.
Zeki, S. (2003) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/s1364-6613(03)00081-0 · Cited by 337 · see citing works
Vuilleumier, P., Armony, J. L., Clarke, K., Husain, M., Driver, J., & Dolan, R. J. (2002) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/s0028-3932(02)00045-3 · Cited by 328 · see citing works
The “correlates” in neural correlates of consciousness
de Graaf, T. A., Hsieh, P.-J., & Sack, A. T. (2012) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.05.012 · Cited by 268 · see citing works
Vuilleumier, P., Sagiv, N., Hazeltine, E., Poldrack, R. A., Swick, D., Rafal, R. D., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2001) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.051436898 · Cited by 223 · see citing works
Abnormal Attentional Modulation of Retinotopic Cortex in Parietal Patients with Spatial Neglect
Vuilleumier, P., Schwartz, S., Verdon, V., Maravita, A., Hutton, C., Husain, M., & Driver, J. (2008) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2008.08.072 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
The Attention Schema Theory: A Foundation for Engineering Artificial Consciousness
Graziano, M. S. A. (2017) · Frontiers in Robotics and AI · doi:10.3389/frobt.2017.00060 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
“Yet, information from the neglected side is still processed to some degree (Marshall and Halligan, 1988), and the visual system is still active to the highest levels of processing (Rees et al., 2000; Vuilleumier et al., 2002).”
BackgroundMontijn, J. S., Goltstein, P. M., & Pennartz, C. M. (2015) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.10163 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Freitas da Rocha, A., Pereira, A., & Bezerra Coutinho, F. A. (2001) · Progress in Neurobiology · doi:10.1016/s0301-0082(00)00069-1 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Conscious Perception and the Prefrontal Cortex A Review
Michel, M. (2022) · Journal of Consciousness Studies · doi:10.53765/20512201.29.7.115 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
To what extent do neurobiological sleep-waking processes support psychoanalysis?
Gottesmann, C. (2010) · International review of neurobiology · doi:10.1016/s0074-7742(10)92012-6 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
- Authors
- Rees, G.
- Affiliations
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- Corresponding author
- Rees, G.
- ORCID
- Rees, G.
- Venue
- Brain
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2000-08-01
- Volume
- 123
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1624-1633
- ISSN
- 0006-8950 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2156
- OpenAlex
- W2165884316
- Cited by
- 268
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 9.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Brain (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Spatial Neglect and Hemispheric Dysfunction
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Keywords
- visual extinction, unconscious visual processing, visual awareness, right hemisphere, inferior parietal cortex, fusiform gyrus, attentional bias
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Attention, Brain Damage, Chronic, Consciousness, Evoked Potentials, Visual, Face, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Parietal Lobe, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Photic Stimulation, Vision, Ocular, Visual Cortex
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
