Covert orienting of attention in patients with cortical lesions and their anatomical correlate

Directing spatial attention towards task-relevant stimuli without eye movements is referred to as covert spatial attention. Here, we used new lesion mapping techniques in stroke patients with circumscribed cortical lesions to determine which anatomical structures subserve covert visual orienting. We investigated 57 stroke patients (39 patients with right- and 18 patients with left-sided lesions) and compared their performance in a covert visual attention task (Posner task) to 20 healthy age-matched controls. Analysis of lesion location contrasting the 12 patients with right-sided lesions who performed significan…