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Neurophysiological basis underlying transition between attentional states

Poster Session D - Monday, March 9, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Sairamya Nanjappan Jothiraj¹ (), Julia Kam²; ¹Postdoctoral Associate, ²Associate Professor

The human capacity to flexibly allocate attentional resources towards internal (attending to our inner thoughts) and external (attending to the external environment) states is essential for optimal performance in everyday situations. Although past functional neuroimaging studies have predominantly implicated the frontoparietal control network (FPCN) and ventral attention network (VAN) in attentional control, the neurophysiological basis particularly inter-network communications underlying attentional switching remains largely unknown. To address this, we examined intracranial electroencephalography recordings from 20 patients with intractable epilepsy during an attention switching task. Our results revealed differential patterns of low frequency activity when switching to internal compared to switching to external attention within FPCN and VAN. A random forest within subject model successfully classified these two switching conditions using spectral power measures with a balanced accuracy of 87%. Notably, FPCN and VAN showed stronger phase synchronization at theta, alpha, and beta with the dorsal attention network or the default mode network as a function of the switching condition, with the direction of the information flow primarily going from FPCN and VAN to the other two networks. Finally, some of these connectivity measures were associated with subjective ratings of the switching experience, highlighting their functional significance. These findings offer new insight into how coordinated network activity supports attentional switching, which may have implications for interventions aimed at enhancing attentional regulation in clinical populations.

Topic Area: ATTENTION: Other