Abstract
In visual search, the presence of a highly salient color distractor in a display slows search for a shape target, consistent with an attentional shift to the distractor. We investigated the role of the parietal cortex in attentional capture by a singleton using rTMS. Following disruption to the right parietal cortex by sustained TMS, the RT cost of the singleton distractor was diminished. Moreover, at least part of this reduction of singleton distraction was due to the elimination of priming effects between target and distractor singletons on consecutive trials. This is consistent with previous work positing the representation of salience in the right parietal cortex (e.g. Corbetta and Shulman, 2002) and further suggests a role for the right parietal cortex in the integration of bottom-up salience information with top-down information about the role of salient items in prior trials.