Attention to Stimuli of Learned versus Innate Biological Value Relies on Separate Neural Systems.
Attention to Stimuli of Learned versus Innate Biological Value Relies on Separate Neural Systems.
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DOI：
10.1523/jneurosci.0925-22.2022
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发表时间：
2022-12-07
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注意的神经基础，一组促进行为选择的神经过程，是一个深入研究的课题。在人类中，奖励线索会影响注意力，即使这些线索与当前任务无关。由于杏仁核在奖励处理中起作用，并且杏仁核神经元的活动与空间注意力有关，我们推断杏仁核可能对关注奖励图像至关重要。为了测试这种可能性，我们使用了一个注意力捕捉任务，它提供了一个注意力偏差的定量测量。具体来说，我们比较了双侧杏仁核损伤的成年雄性恒河猴和未手术对照的反应时间（RTs），当它们从高价值或低价值的奖励图像扫视到外围目标时。我们预测：(1)与低价值图像相比，高价值图像的即时反应时间更长，揭示了奖励刺激对注意力的捕获；(2)与对照组相比，杏仁核病变的猴子在高价值图像上的RT时间更短。为了进行比较，我们通过捕食者和同种动物的图像来评估同一组猴子的注意力捕获情况，这些类别被认为具有天生的生物学价值。在执行注意力捕捉任务时，所有猴子都被高价值的奖励图像比低价值的奖励图像更慢。与我们的预测相反，杏仁核病变未能破坏这种效果。然而，当看到捕食者和同种动物的图像时，与对照组相比，杏仁核受损的猴子的注意力捕获明显减少。因此，不同的神经通路负责将注意力分配给具有习得价值和先天价值的刺激。有价值的东西吸引注意。众所周知，杏仁核参与奖励处理和物体奖励值的编码。因此，我们研究了杏仁核对于分配对奖励对象的注意力是否必要。为了进行比较，我们评估了杏仁核对具有先天生物价值的物体的贡献：捕食者和同种动物。我们发现猕猴的杏仁核对于引导注意力到具有先天生物价值的图像是必要的，但对于引导注意力到最近学习的奖励预测图像则不是必要的。这些发现表明，杏仁核对关注有价值的物体做出了选择性的贡献。这些数据与心理健康障碍有关，如社交焦虑症和小动物恐惧症，这些疾病是由于对特定类别的物体的偏见引起的。
The neural bases of attention, a set of neural processes that promote behavioral selection, is a subject of intense investigation. In humans, rewarded cues influence attention, even when those cues are irrelevant to the current task. Because the amygdala plays a role in reward processing, and the activity of amygdala neurons has been linked to spatial attention, we reasoned that the amygdala may be essential for attending to rewarded images. To test this possibility, we used an attentional capture task, which provides a quantitative measure of attentional bias. Specifically, we compared reaction times (RTs) of adult male rhesus monkeys with bilateral amygdala lesions and unoperated controls as they made a saccade away from a high- or low-value rewarded image to a peripheral target. We predicted that: (1) RTs will be longer for high- compared with low-value images, revealing attentional capture by rewarded stimuli; and (2) relative to controls, monkeys with amygdala lesions would exhibit shorter RT for high-value images. For comparison, we assessed the same groups of monkeys for attentional capture by images of predators and conspecifics, categories thought to have innate biological value. In performing the attentional capture task, all monkeys were slowed more by high-value relative to low-value rewarded images. Contrary to our prediction, amygdala lesions failed to disrupt this effect. When presented with images of predators and conspecifics, however, monkeys with amygdala lesions showed significantly diminished attentional capture relative to controls. Thus, separate neural pathways are responsible for allocating attention to stimuli with learned versus innate value. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Valuable objects attract attention. The amygdala is known to contribute to reward processing and the encoding of object reward value. We therefore examined whether the amygdala is necessary for allocating attention to rewarded objects. For comparison, we assessed the amygdala's contribution to attending to objects with innate biological value: predators and conspecifics. We found that the macaque amygdala is necessary for directing attention to images with innate biological value, but not for directing attention to recently learned reward-predictive images. These findings indicate that the amygdala makes selective contributions to attending to valuable objects. The data are relevant to mental health disorders, such as social anxiety disorders and small animal phobias, that arise from biased attention to select categories of objects.