Ibos et al examined the relative roles of the frontal eye fields (FEF) and lateral intraparietal area (LIP) in bottom-up vs top-down selection. They found that intrinsic salience (bottom-up) was signaled in LIP before the FEF whereas extrinsic salience (top-down) was signaled in FEF before LIP. The authors conclude that bottom-up vs top-down control of attention predominates in the parietal vs frontal cortex, respectively.
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/19/8359.abstract
As noted by the authors, this is highly consistent with our lab’s observations that attention signals for bottom-up capture by stimulus salience (pop-out) vs top-down search originate from parietal vs frontal cortex, respectively.
Buschman, T.J. and Miller, E.K. (2007) Top-down versus bottom-up control of attention in the prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices. Science. 315: 1860-1862 View PDF »
We also showed that rhythmicity of frontal cortical top-down signals may control the periodic shifts of attention during visual search that leads to eventual selection of a target:
Buschman, T.J. and Miller, E.K. (2009) Serial, covert, shifts of attention during visual search are reflected by the frontal eye fields and correlated with population oscillations. Neuron, 63: 386-396. View PDF »
About the Author
Miller Lab
The Miller Lab uses experimental and theoretical approaches to study the neural basis of the high-level cognitive functions that underlie complex goal-directed behavior. ekmillerlab.mit.edu