A direct prefrontotectal tract against distractibility in the human brain

Distractibility, which can be defined as an attention deficit in which orientation toward irrelevant targets can be hardly inhibited, is commonly related to a dysfunction of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Here, we show that increased distractibility, observed in a patient with an exceptionally small lesion located in the upper brainstem, may result from the interruption of a direct tract that connects the prefrontal cortex to the superior colliculus, a structure involved in both eye movement control and attentional shifts. Ann Neurol 2003;53:542–545