Human Ventral Parietal Cortex Plays a Functional Role on Visuospatial Attention and Primary Consciousness. A Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study

Babiloni, Vecchio, Rossi, De Capua, Bartalini, Ulivelli, Rossini · Cerebral Cortex · 2007 · neuroscience · 10.1093/cercor/bhl060 · record Babiloni2007-human-ventral-parietal-cortex-plays-a-functi
tag layer · index · concepts · authors · עברית
Where this record's text came from. faceted 2026-08 by reading the locally held text (pdftext); every evidence string verified as an exact substring of that text before merging. The paper carries a second, explicitly flagged claim that is a null-result: the absence of any linear correlation between the rTMS effect on conscious perception and the effect on attention ('As a novelty, these cognitive functions, as modulated by parietal rTMS, do not seem to share either linear or simple relationships'). Claim type was set to 'existence' because the title and the 'first direct experimental evidence' sentence frame the causal demonstration as the headline claim; a corpus that allows two claim types should also carry 'null-result' here. method is 'behavioural-experiment' from the controlled list because all dependent measures were behavioural (verbal seen/not-seen self-report and button-press RT); the manipulation itself is repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, which the list has no term for. One candidate relation quote had to be discarded because a PDF running head ('1490 Parietal Cortex, Attention, and Consciousness d Babiloni and others') is interpolated mid-sentence in the extracted text; a different, clean sentence was used instead. 2026-08-14 schema-0.3 pass: every quote verified as an exact substring of the staged text and anchored at merge time; concept terms verified present; every edge endpoint an existing node.
How to read this page. The article itself is not reproduced here — this paper is not cleared for redistribution, so what follows is the tag layer alone. The evidence sentences are withheld with the article. The table at the foot lists every tag the record carries; each row names the facet it belongs to, and the whose words column says whether the tag records the paper's own wording or the tagger's sentence about the paper. Every tag links to each other paper in the corpus carrying it. The machine-readable edition of the same thing is the TEI file beside this one, where the tags live in standOff, and the article is at its publisher via the link below. When we have changed our mind. Some entries in the table begin with a word in capitals and the reason for it. EVIDENCE CORRECTED — the finding still stands, but we had quoted the wrong sentence from the paper, and the quotation has been replaced with the right one. RETRACTED — the entry itself was wrong; it stays on the page, marked, with the reason, rather than being deleted. WITHDRAWN AND REPLACED — the entry was wrong, and a corrected version of it appears in the entries below. Each mark carries its own reason, in brackets, because the reasons differ from one entry to the next. An entry we have WITHDRAWN is removed from this page and kept in the record, with its reason. A line reading Audit and a date is a later re-reading of the entry against its whole sentence: DOUBTFUL means it was kept, and the reason says what is loose about it. Quotation marks inside the tagger's sentence. Where a tag is the tagger's own sentence, a phrase in quotation marks inside it is borrowed from the paper — the tagger's wording around it is not. The paper's own sentence is the evidence quote for that row; on this page it is withheld with the article, and the article is at its publisher. Nothing inside quotation marks anywhere on this page is ours: if it is quoted, it is the paper's. Whose words a concept carries. A concept entry records a term the paper itself uses, so the term, the sense given for it, and its evidence are the paper's own words, quoted where the paper fixes them. This is the opposite of a sense entry in the tag table, which is the tagger's sentence about how the paper uses a term. Where a concept entry could not be grounded in the paper's words, the entry says so on its own row.

Tags on this paper

Every tag the record carries, each linking to every other paper in the corpus that carries it. A tag appears here whether or not its words occur in the article — the spans below are only the ones a sentence in this paper licenses. Of the 5 concept tags on this paper, all 5 are grounded in a quoted sentence.
seen trials conscious perception threshold time correct stimulus detections primary consciousness rTMS spreads transsynaptically into two networks whose interaction is nonlinear, so perturbing ventral PPC dissociates attention from consciousness instead of moving them together a focal coil at near-threshold intensity limits the induced neural interference within a widely distributed network, which is why the behavioural effect is only about 10% the stimulation disrupts the spatial disengagement operation of Posner's attention system, which then lengthens reaction time visual primary consciousness reaction time Site of Stimulation (real left PPC, real right PPC, sham) sham condition spatial congruence ANOVA analysis of variance (ANOVA) test post hoc multiple comparison test Duncan test was used for post hoc comparisons correlation Pearson test; Bonferroni corrected F-test / p-value mean and standard error behavioural-experiment

Legend

relation to other workclaim_relationshow this paper stands to another: agrees, contradicts, extends, qualifies
claim typeclaim_typethe shape of the claim: existence, mechanism, method, critique, prediction, null
concept edgeconcept_edgesan asserted relation between two concepts, with the sentence asserting it
conceptconceptsan idea the paper works with, quoted where the paper uses it
content tagcontent_tagsa finding, definition, quantity, statistic or variable named in the paper
controlcontrolsan experiment run to eliminate a rival explanation
limitationlimitationswhat the paper says its evidence cannot support
mechanismmechanismshow the reported effect is said to come about
methodmethodhow the paper produced its evidence
phenomenonphenomenonthe effect or regularity under study
sensesensesa distinct use of a term, quoted where the paper fixes it

The paper

The full text is not reproduced here. This article is not cleared for redistribution, so the page carries the tag layer only. Its evidence sentences are withheld; the grounding status remains with each tag, and the article itself is at https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhl060. The reading view exists for the papers whose licence permits it.

Every tag on this page

claim_relations 3 · claim_type 1 · concept_edges 2 · concepts 5 · content_tags 25 · controls 2 · limitations 5 · mechanisms 3 · method 1 · phenomenon 1 · senses 3

Relations on this page carry a quotation for the claim. Where a relation was separately evidenced — and so tested against the vocabulary for its type — the row says so; none of 2 relations here carry that mark. The rest are the tagger’s reading of the sentence quoted beside them.

facettagfieldconf.whose words
claim_typeexistence
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claim_typethe paper's words
phenomenonvisuospatial attention and primary visual consciousness
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phenomenonthe paper's words
methodbehavioural-experiment
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methodthe paper's words
mechanismsmechanisms
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mechanisms[0]the tagger's words
mechanismsmechanisms
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mechanisms[1]the tagger's words
mechanismsmechanisms
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mechanisms[2]the tagger's words
limitationsThe behavioural effect of the stimulation was small, attributed to the focal coil and near-threshold intensity used.
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what this limits: the SIZE of the reported effect: THE SMALL BUT SIGNIFICANT MAGNITUDE OF rTMS EFFECTS ON VENTRAL PPC (ABOUT 10%) IS LIKELY DUE TO THE USE OF FOCAL COIL AND NEAR-THRESHOLD INTENSITY OF rTMS
limitations[0]the tagger's words
limitationsrTMS effects are not confined to the targeted region, so the locus of the effect is not purely ventral PPC.
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what this limits: any claim that localises the effect to ventral PPC: THE EFFECT OF rTMS DOES NOT REMAIN LIMITED TO THE TARGETED BRAIN REGION BUT SPREAD TRANSYNAPTICALLY
limitations[1]the tagger's words
limitationsA motor-output contribution to the reaction-time slowing cannot be excluded.
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what this limits: the reaction-time interpretation: THE SLOWING OF THE REACTION TIME IS MAINLY DUE TO VISUOSPATIAL SENSORY PROCESSING, ALTHOUGH A SLIGHT INFLUENCE ON MOTOR OUTPUT CANNOT BE EXCLUDED
limitations[2]the tagger's words
limitationsThe paper's consciousness measure is the percentage of trials a subject reported seeing.
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what this limits: any citation of this paper as evidence about consciousness: trials associated with the conscious perception of the cue stimuli were defined as seen trials, and the reported measure is their percentage
limitations[3]1.0the tagger's words
limitationsThe stimulus duration was calibrated per subject to about 50% detection, so the baseline rate is a design target.
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what this limits: the baseline seen-trial rate reported here: the threshold time was defined as the cue duration producing about 50% of correct stimulus detections within a series of 10 trials, so a baseline near 50% follows from the calibration
limitations[4]1.0the tagger's words
controlsSHAM rTMS delivered at the same sites, and the effect measured as the difference between real and sham
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eliminates: that the effect is the coil's noise, scalp sensation or the expectation of stimulation rather than the magnetic pulse reaching cortex · outcome (stated by the tagger, no quotation): held
controls[0]0.95the tagger's words
controlsthe same sham-difference correlation was computed ACROSS the two experiments as a control comparison
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eliminates: that a correlation between the consciousness and attention measures is a general property of the difference scores rather than a shared mechanism · outcome (stated by the tagger, no quotation): held
controls[1]0.95the tagger's words
conceptsseen trials
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also in: seen trials
concepts[0]the paper's words
conceptsconscious perception
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concepts[1]the paper's words
conceptsthreshold time
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concepts[2]the paper's words
conceptscorrect stimulus detections
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concepts[3]the paper's words
conceptsprimary consciousness
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
concepts[4]the paper's words
sensesprimary consciousness, as measured - THE PERCENTAGE OF `seen trials`: the title claims a functional role in primary consciousness and the experiment records how often a subject reported perceiving a cue at their own threshold duration, so a term from consciousness theory and a detection rate occupy the same slot
Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.
senses[0]1.0the tagger's words
sensesthe threshold time - EACH SUBJECT'S OWN 50% POINT: defined as the cue duration giving about 50% correct detections over 10 trials, repeated 7 times, so the quantity is fitted per person and every later percentage is measured relative to that fit
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senses[1]1.0the tagger's words
sensesthe 52.9% baseline - NEAR THE DESIGN TARGET BY CONSTRUCTION: the calibration sets each subject near 50% detection, so the baseline seen-trial rate is close to the number the procedure aimed at; the rTMS effect is a departure from a value the method placed there, not from a natural rate
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senses[2]1.0the tagger's words
claim_relationsbuilds-on → Babiloni and others 2006
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claim_relations[0]the tagger's words
claim_relationsreplicates → Vallar 2001; Corbetta and Shulman 2002; Karnath and others 2003; Corbetta and others 2005
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claim_relations[1]the tagger's words
claim_relationscontradicts → the idea that visuospatial attention and primary consciousness are subserved by strictly interdependent networks
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claim_relations[2]the tagger's words
concept_edgesconscious perception —operationalised-as→ seen trials
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strength of the relation: 1
concept_edges[0]the tagger's words
concept_edgesthreshold time —operationalised-as→ correct stimulus detections
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strength of the relation: 1
concept_edges[1]the tagger's words
content_tagsANOVA
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also in: ANOVA
content_tags.statistics[0]the tagger's words
content_tagspost hoc multiple comparison test
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content_tags.statistics[1]the tagger's words
content_tagscorrelation
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also in: correlation
content_tags.statistics[2]the tagger's words
content_tagsF-test / p-value
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content_tags.statistics[3]the tagger's words
content_tagsmean and standard error
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content_tags.statistics[4]the tagger's words
content_tagsRepetitive TMS over either left or right ventral posterior parietal cortex significantly reduced the number of cue stimuli that subjects consciously reported seeing, compared with sham stimulation.
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content_tags.findings[0]the tagger's words
content_tagsReal rTMS over right or left ventral PPC slowed reaction times to go stimuli relative to sham.
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content_tags.findings[1]the tagger's words
content_tagsThe size of the consciousness impairment and the size of the attention impairment were not correlated across individuals.
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content_tags.findings[2]the tagger's words
content_tagsAny rTMS, real or sham, generally shortened reaction times: 418 ms after sham, 446 ms after left and 438 ms after right PPC stimulation.
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content_tags.findings[3]the tagger's words
content_tagsA control analysis validated the subjective reports: reaction times were faster on trials the subject called 'seen' than on trials called 'not seen'.
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content_tags.findings[4]the tagger's words
content_tagsvisual primary consciousness
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content_tags.definitions[0]the tagger's words
content_tagsprimary consciousness
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content_tags.definitions[1]the tagger's words
content_tagsthreshold time
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content_tags.definitions[2]the tagger's words
content_tagsreaction time
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also in: reaction time
content_tags.definitions[3]the tagger's words
content_tagsSite of Stimulation (real left PPC, real right PPC, sham)
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content_tags.variables[0]the tagger's words
content_tagsreaction time
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also in: reaction time
content_tags.variables[2]the tagger's words
content_tagssham condition
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content_tags.variables[3]the tagger's words
content_tagsspatial congruence
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content_tags.variables[4]the tagger's words
content_tags18 — number of healthy adult volunteers stimulated
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content_tags.quantities[0]the tagger's words
content_tagsabout 10% — drop in the number of consciously perceived visual stimuli after parietal rTMS versus sham
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content_tags.quantities[1]the tagger's words
content_tagsabout 25 ms — slowing of reaction time to go stimuli caused by parietal rTMS relative to sham
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content_tags.quantities[2]the tagger's words
content_tags72 ms (±7.9 SE) — mean individually determined perceptive threshold duration of the cue stimulus
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content_tags.quantities[3]the tagger's words
content_tagsF2,34 = 5.25; P < 0.01 — ANOVA main effect of stimulation site on reaction time in the Attentional experiment
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content_tags.quantities[4]the tagger's words
content_tagsr = –0.36, P = 0.13 — correlation between seen-trial count and reaction time after left-PPC rTMS (not significant)
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content_tags.quantities[5]the tagger's words
content_tagsF1,18 = 5.84; P < 0.025 — control-ANOVA main effect of seen/not-seen condition on reaction time
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content_tags.quantities[6]the tagger's words

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