Shared subcortical arousal systems across sensory modalities during transient modulation of attention.
NeuroImage – May 15, 2025
Source: PubMed
Summary
Our brains have a shared "alert system" that helps us pay attention across all our senses. Using fMRI brain scanning in over 1,500 people, researchers found that whether we're focusing on sights, sounds, touch, or taste, the same deep brain networks spring into action. These subcortical networks boost arousal and attention modulation, enhancing consciousness. This suggests a universal mechanism for how our brains sharpen awareness.
Abstract
Subcortical arousal systems are known to play a key role in controlling sustained changes in attention and conscious awareness. Recent studies indicate that these systems have a major influence on short-term dynamic modulation of visual attention, but their role across sensory modalities is not fully understood. In this study, we investigated shared subcortical arousal systems across sensory modalities during transient changes in attention using block and event-related fMRI paradigms. We analyzed massive publicly available fMRI datasets collected while 1561 participants performed visual, auditory, tactile, and taste perception tasks. Our analyses revealed a shared circuit of subcortical arousal systems exhibiting early transient increases in activity in midbrain reticular formation and central thalamus across perceptual modalities, as well as less consistent increases in pons, hypothalamus, basal forebrain, and basal ganglia. Identifying these networks is critical for understanding mechanisms of normal attention and consciousness and may help facilitate subcortical targeting for therapeutic neuromodulation.