Mechanisms of Attention in Early Visual Processing

感官世界拥有丰富的信息，但主观经验和实验演示表明，神经系统在任何时刻有效处理这些混乱的海量信息的能力有限。选择性注意提供了一种生物通过增强相关信息的处理和抑制无关或分散注意力的事件来调节感觉信息流的方法。在人类和动物身上进行的大量研究已经证实，注意控制机制影响大脑皮层内的视觉信息处理。然而，选择性注意的神经元机制在细胞和突触水平上仍然知之甚少。加州大学戴维斯分校的W.Martin Usrey博士和George R.Mangun博士使用一种新的方法来测量注意力对已识别神经元之间突触交流的影响，他们正在确定注意力在大脑皮层加工的早期阶段的影响。在这样做的过程中，他们正在测试几个长期存在的假设，这些假设涉及自愿注意的空间组织，目标促进和分心抑制机制之间的相互作用，空间尺度在决定自愿注意中选择地点的作用，丘脑皮质机制在反射性注意中的作用，以及特定视觉通路对自愿和反射性视觉注意的贡献。该项目将通过研究生和博士后学者参与与该项目相关的本科生研究指导，促进发现和理解，同时促进教学、培训和学习。通过加州大学戴维斯分校的暑期本科生研究计划(SURP)和青年学者计划(YSP)，PI和Co-PI还将指导有兴趣从事科学事业的本科生和有前途的高中生。这些项目促进了代表性不足的群体，并为来自非研究型大学的学生提供了研究机会。该项目将通过交流计划加强国际合作。拟议中的研究将在教育和健康方面为社会带来巨大利益。由于选择性注意力是一个核心的认知过程，因此在理解、诊断和治疗涉及注意力缺陷的精神疾病方面，阐明人类的注意力机制仍然是一个高度优先的问题，包括注意力缺陷多动障碍(ADHD)、自闭症、强迫症(OCD)和精神分裂症。改善这些疾病为促进教育和人类生产力提供了更多的机会。

The sensory world is rich in information, but subjective experience and experimental demonstrations reveal that the nervous system is limited in how much of this confused mass of information it can effectively process at any moment in time. Selective attention provides a means by which organisms regulate the flow of sensory information by enhancing the processing of relevant information and inhibiting irrelevant or distracting events. Numerous studies in humans and animals have established that attentional control mechanisms influence visual information processing within the cerebral cortex. However, the neuronal mechanisms of selective attention remain poorly understood at the cellular and synaptic levels. Using a novel method for measuring the effects of attention on synaptic communication between identified neurons, Drs. W. Martin Usrey and George R. Mangun of the University of California, Davis are determining the influence of attention at the earliest stages of processing in the cerebral cortex. In so doing, they are testing several long-standing hypotheses about the spatial organization of voluntary attention, the interactions between target facilitation and distractor suppression mechanisms, the role of spatial scale in determining the locus of selection in voluntary attention, the role of thalamocortical mechanisms in reflexive attention, and the contributions of specific visual pathways to voluntary and reflexive visual attention.The project will advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training, and learning through graduate and postdoctoral scholar involvement in undergraduate research supervision related to the project. Via the University of California Davis Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) and the Young Scholars Program (YSP), the PI and the Co-PI will also mentor undergraduate and promising high-school students interested in pursuing careers in science. These programs promote underrepresented groups and provide research opportunities for students from non-research colleges. The project will enhance international collaboration through exchange programs. The proposed research will strongly benefit society in education and health. Because selective attention is a core cognitive process, elucidating attentional mechanisms in humans remains a high priority in efforts to understand, diagnose and treat psychiatric conditions that involve deficits in attention, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and schizophrenia. Ameliorating these disorders provide increased opportunities for advancing education and human productivity.