A direct prefrontotectal tract against distractibility in the human brain

✍ Scribed by Bertrand Gaymard; Chantal François; Christoph J. Ploner; Carine Condy; Sophie Rivaud-Péchoux

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 128 KB
• Volume: 53
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0364-5134
• DOI: 10.1002/ana.10560

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Distractibility, which can be defined as an attention deficit in which orientation toward irrelevant targets can be hardly inhibited, is commonly related to a dysfunction of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Here, we show that increased distractibility, observed in a patient with an exceptionally small lesion located in the upper brainstem, may result from the interruption of a direct tract that connects the prefrontal cortex to the superior colliculus, a structure involved in both eye movement control and attentional shifts. Ann Neurol 2003;53:542–545