Topography and lateralization in frontal eye fields during covert spatial orienting and visual search revealed by fMRI

To what extent are the frontal eye fields (FEFs) topographically organized and do they show hemispheric lateralization (i.e. contralateral preference) during spatial orienting and visual search? Search tasks spanning the whole visual field revealed activity prominently within the right FEF (Donner et al. 2000). In fact orienting tasks separating between hemifields revealed topographic maps and suggested contralateral preference in both FEFs (Hagler & Sereno 2005). However, it is unclear, whether topography and lateralization effects are specific for orienting or if they can also be found during search. We mapped…