CAREER: The Capture of Attention: A Combined Imaging and Electrophysiology Approach

我们思想的内容并不是由碰巧冲击我们感官的刺激严格决定的。相反，我们这些感知者会积极地挑选外部世界可用信息的一个子集进行详细处理，将其他信息置于意识的阴影中。这种主动的知觉选择过程被称为注意。在美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）的支持下，洛克菲勒大学（the Rockefeller University）的温里奇·弗雷瓦尔德（Winrich Freiwald）博士和他的同事们正在研究有关大脑如何实现注意力的基本问题。脑成像技术被用来寻找控制注意力的大脑区域，并找出它们是如何连接起来形成注意力网络的。研究小组将测试这样一种假设，即注意力来自两个大脑区域网络的相互作用，一个网络控制被关注的内容，另一个网络扫描环境，寻找当前注意力焦点之外的意外事件。根据它们在大脑中的解剖位置，这些网络分别被称为“背侧”和“腹侧”。研究人员正在研究腹侧注意力网络如何扫描环境，以及它如何中断背侧大脑网络的处理以改变注意力的焦点。该研究利用功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）对人类和猴子进行研究，以确定大脑区域和腹侧注意力网络的连接。人工激发或抑制相关脑区的神经活动，直接证明腹侧网络如何影响背侧注意网络和注意力的整体控制。当注意力系统的一个组成部分受到脑损伤时，就会出现严重的缺陷，比如对一半视觉环境的注意力忽视。该项目的结果可能导致脑损伤康复的新策略。因为像面孔这样的社会刺激会自动吸引注意力，所以这项研究也有助于将人类理解为社会生物。通过这个项目，为研究生和研究生科学家和医生提供了各种各样的脑成像技术高级培训机会，并教授视觉科学各个方面的课程。为研究生开设了一门新的感觉神经生理学实验课程。这个项目特别强调向高中生和本科生介绍大脑研究的结果和实践，以提高对大脑研究的认识和对科学实践的兴趣。因为像注意力这样的认知能力的大脑成像能迅速抓住许多人的想象力，这些研究的结果将被广泛传播，以增强社会上的科学理解。我们可以自愿地控制注意力，但一些外部刺激，用心理学家威廉·詹姆斯（William James）的话来说，“奇怪的东西，移动的东西，野生动物”，可以突破并占领我们的思想。这个项目正在研究大脑是如何允许这种注意力与环境的动态相互作用的。注意力是我们所做的每件事的基础，无论我们只是观察这个世界，在其中行走，还是思考这个世界。因此，理解注意力对于理解我们的大脑是如何工作的至关重要。

The contents of our minds are not rigidly determined by the stimuli that happen to be impinging on our senses. Instead, we perceivers actively pick and choose a subset of the available information about the outside world for detailed processing, relegating other information to the shadows of consciousness. This active process of perceptual selection is called attention. With the support of the National Science Foundation, Dr. Winrich Freiwald and his colleagues at The Rockefeller University are tackling fundamental questions about how the brain implements attention. Brain imaging techniques are being used to find the brain areas controlling attention and to find out how they are connected to form attention networks. The research team will test the hypothesis that attention comes about from the interplay of two networks of brain areas, one network controlling what is being paid attention to and the other one scanning the environment for unexpected events currently outside the focus of attention. By their anatomical location in the brain, these networks are referred to as 'dorsal' and 'ventral,' respectively. The researchers are learning how the ventral attention network scans the environment, and how it interrupts processing in the dorsal brain network in order to change the focus of attention. The research uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in humans and monkeys to identify the brain areas and connections of the ventral attention network. Neural activity in relevant brain areas is artificially elicited or suppressed to directly prove how the ventral network affects the dorsal attention network and the overall control of attention. When a component of the attention system is harmed by a brain injury, severe deficits follow like the attentional neglect of half of the visual environment. Results of the project can lead to new strategies for rehabilitation of brain injuries. Because social stimuli like faces attract attention automatically, the research can also help to understand humans as social beings. With this program, a wide variety of advanced training opportunities in brain imaging techniques for graduate and postgraduate scientists and physicians is offered, and classes are taught on various aspects of vision science. A new laboratory course in sensory neurophysiology is being offered for graduate students. A particular emphasis in this project is placed on introducing high school students and undergraduate students to both results and practice of brain research in order to increase awareness of brain research and interest in scientific practice in general. Because brain imaging of cognitive capabilities like attention quickly captures the imagination of many people, results of these investigations will be disseminated broadly in order to enhance scientific understanding in society. We can control attention voluntarily, yet some external stimuli, 'strange things, moving things, wild animals,' in the words of the psychologist William James, can break through and capture our minds. This project is investigating how the brain allows for such dynamic interactions of attention with the environment. Attention underlies everything we do, whether we just watch the world, walk in it, or think about it. Thus, understanding attention is of fundamental importance to understanding how our minds work.