The role of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in visual change awareness.

Recently, the neural correlates of change detectionvs change blindness have been investigated using fMRI. Results revealed that conscious perception of change is associatedwith enhanced activity in a neural network comprising the parietal (bilateral) and right dorsolateral prefrontal (DLPF) cortex. Here, by means of repetitive transcranialmagnetic stimulation (rTMS), we unveil the causal role of the right DLPF cortex in perceiving changes.When rTMS was applied to this area, change perceptionwas impaired as compared to leftDLPF rTMS and sham stimulation.This result is important as it shows, for the ¢rst time, that conscious change perception is associated with normal activity in the right DLPF cortex.Our ¢ndings are in agreement with a recent view emphasizing the role of frontal areas, in addition to classical ventral and dorsal pathways, in visual awareness