Spatial and temporal deficits are regionally dissociable in patients with pulvinar lesions

The pulvinar is an important structure for visual attention function. Spatial and temporal attention was examined in three patients with varying pulvinar lesions. Spatial and temporal deficits were dissociable. The patient with anterior damage showed strong spatial but not temporal attention deficits, while the patient with posterior damage showed clear temporal attention deficits, but much reduced spatial problems. A third patient with intermediate damage showed intermediate behaviours. These findings are discussed within the scope of models of visual attention in which the pulvinar facilitates communication between different brain areas: depending upon the specifics of pulvinar damage, communication with different cortical areas may be degraded, thereby producing distinct patterns of deficit.