In visual search, salient yet task-irrelevant distractors in the stimulus array interfere with target selection. This is due to the unwanted shift of attention towards the salient stimulus-the so-called attentional capture effect, which delays deployment of attention onto the target. Although powerful and automatic, attentional capture by a salient distractor is nonetheless antagonized by distractor-filtering mechanisms and is further modulated by cross-trial contingencies: The distractor cost is typically more robust when no distraction has been experienced in the immediate past, compared to when a distractor was present on the immediately preceding trial. Here, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to shed light on the causal role of two crucial nodes of the ventral attention network, namely the Temporo-Parietal Junction (TPJ) and the Middle Frontal Gyrus (MFG), in the exogenous control of attention (i.e., attentional capture) and its history-dependent modulation. Participants were asked to discriminate the direction of a target arrow while ignoring a task-irrelevant salient distractor, when present. Immediately after display onset, 10 Hz triple-pulse TMS was delivered either to TPJ or MFG on the right hemisphere. Results demonstrated that stimulation of right TPJ–but not of right MFG, strongly modulated attentional capture as a function of the type of previous trial, by somewhat enhancing the distractor-related cost when the preceding trial was a distractor-absent trial and significantly decreasing the cost when the preceding trial was a distractor-present trial. These findings indicate that TMS of right TPJ exacerbates the effect of the recent history, likely reflecting enhanced updating of the predictive model that dynamically governs proactive distractor-filtering mechanisms. More generally, the results attest to a role of TPJ in mediating the history-dependent modulation of attentional capture.

在视觉搜索中，刺激阵列中的突出但与任务无关的干扰因素会干扰目标的选择。这是由于注意力不希望地转移到显着刺激上（所谓的注意力捕获效应），这延迟了注意力在目标上的部署。尽管功能强大且自动，但是注意力分散器的注意力捕获仍然会受到干扰物过滤机制的拮抗，并且会通过交叉试验的意外事件进一步调节：与过去相比，当近期没有经历干扰时，干扰物的成本通常会更高在紧接的先前试验中有一个干扰物。在这里，我们使用经颅磁刺激（TMS）阐明了腹侧注意力网络的两个关键节点的因果关系，即颞上顶交界处（TPJ）和中额额回（MFG），处于对注意力（即注意力捕获）及其依赖于历史的调制的外源控制中。要求参与者区分目标箭头的方向，而忽略与任务无关的显着干扰物（如果存在）。显示开始后立即向右半球的TPJ或MFG输送10 Hz三脉冲TMS。结果表明，对右TPJ刺激而非对右MFG刺激，根据先前试验的类型，通过在某种程度上增加了与牵张器相关的费用并显着降低了与牵张器相关的费用，来强烈地调节注意力捕获。前一项试验为干扰物存在试验的费用。这些发现表明，正确的TPJ的TMS加重了近期病史的影响，可能反映了动态控制主动性干扰物过滤机制的预测模型的增强更新。更普遍地，结果证明TPJ在介导历史记录的注意力捕获调节中的作用。