Attention modulates responses in the human lateral geniculate nucleus
Attention modulates responses in the human lateral geniculate nucleus
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DOI：
10.1038/nn957
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发表时间：
2002-11-01
影响因子：
25
通讯作者：
Kastner, S
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
O'Connor, DH;Fukui, MM;Kastner, S
注意力机制对于从杂乱的视觉场景中选择相关信息并过滤掉无关信息非常重要。先前已表明选择性注意力会影响纹外和纹状视觉皮层的神经活动。在此，来自功能性脑成像的证据显示，注意力反应调节并不局限于皮层处理，而是早在丘脑层面就可能发生。我们发现注意力以多种方式调节了人类外侧膝状体核（LGN）的神经活动：它增强了对被关注刺激的神经反应，减弱了对被忽视刺激的反应，并在没有视觉刺激的情况下提高了基线活动。传统上被视为通往视觉皮层的门户的LGN，也可能在控制注意力反应增益方面充当“看门人”的角色。
Attentional mechanisms are important for selecting relevant information and filtering out irrelevant information from cluttered visual scenes. Selective attention has previously been shown to affect neural activity in both extrastriate and striate visual cortex. Here, evidence from functional brain imaging shows that attentional response modulation is not confined to cortical processing, but can occur as early as the thalamic level. We found that attention modulated neural activity in the human lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) in several ways: it enhanced neural responses to attended stimuli, attenuated responses to ignored stimuli and increased baseline activity in the absence of visual stimulation. The LGN, traditionally viewed as the gateway to visual cortex, may also serve as a 'gatekeeper' in controlling attentional response gain.