Abstract:

Implementing a visual task across both visual hemifields results in a better performance than in a single hemifield, which is termed as “bilateral field advantage”. The BFA is elicited by two closely linked mechanisms: the early competitive interactions in the visual cortex and the top-down attentional modulation mechanism in the dorsal fronto-parietal network. The former is mainly produced in areas V1–V4, which have a topological relationship with retina, and the latter is mainly involved in bilateral intraparietal sulcus, the right frontal eye field and the right precuneus. Future research will be needed to adopt 3-D stereo vision to further explore the BFA and investigate the brain neural mechanism how it interacts with other types of visual field advantages. It is also meaningful to solve the remaining controversies over the systematic functional connection between brain areas of the dorsal fronto-parietal network.

Key words: bilateral field advantage, dorsal fronto-parietal network, visual cortex, attentional modulation, visual processing