Cortical control of Inhibition of Return: Exploring the causal contributions of the left parietal cortex

Abstract: Inhibition of Return (IOR) refers to longer response times (RTs) when processing information from an already inspected spatial location. This effect encourages orienting towards novel locations and may be hence adaptive to efficiently explore our environment. In a previous study (Bourgeois, Chica, Valero-Cabre, & Bartolomeo, 2012), we demonstrated that repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) over right hemisphere parietal sites, such as the intra-parietal sulcus (IPS), or the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), lastingly interfered with manual but not saccadic IOR, for ipsilateral right-sided targets. For contralateral left-sided targets, rTMS over the right IPS, but not on the right TPJ, impaired both manual and saccadic IOR. In the present study, we investigated hemispheric differences in the cortical control of IOR by stimulating left parietal sites with the same design. Contrary to the stimulation of the right hemisphere, rTMS over the left IPS or TPJ did not produce significant modulations of either manual or saccadic IOR. This evidence extends to IOR the validity of current models of hemispheric asymmetries in the control of visuospatial attention.