Somatosensory Feature Encoding and Attentional Modulation in Human Neocortex

当人们在口袋里寻找物品时，他们能够无缝地将注意力从左手切换到右手，再回到左手。空间注意力使大脑能够在任何给定时刻毫不费力地有选择地感知和理解左手或右手中的东西。尽管注意加工对双手知觉和手运动的协调具有明显的重要性，但人们对手的空间注意分配如何调制触摸信息的编码仍然知之甚少。本研究探讨了空间注意对触觉的影响。该项目预计将通过促进对支持手触摸和注意力选择的大脑机制的理解来影响社会，这将加强对感觉运动功能障碍的诊断和监测，并为先进神经假体的设计提供信息。该项目将促进社区大学生在神经科学和相关STEM领域的参与和教育。利用计算神经成像方法和非侵入性脑刺激，本研究将阐明空间注意对人类躯体感觉皮质信息编码和信号传输的影响。一个主要的研究目标是表征体感刺激编码的空间注意效应。这一目标将使用新的功能磁共振编码模型来实现，该模型描述了对振动频率信息的群体水平调整。这些模型将被用来确定空间注意信号--以及它们与肢体位置操作的潜在相互作用--在哪里以及如何调制人脑中编码的振动表示。第二个主要研究目标是表征空间注意对躯体感觉皮层系统信号传输的影响。这一目标将通过使用经颅磁刺激对大脑活动的因果操作与行为实验和功能神经成像相结合来实现。这些多模式方法将被用来在躯体感觉系统中建立状态依赖的处理原则。总而言之，这项研究计划将产生新的见解，即对手的空间关注如何灵活地塑造人类大脑皮层的体感特征编码和网络通信。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

As people search through their pockets to find items, they are able to seamlessly toggle attention from their left hand to their right hand and back to their left hand. Spatial attention enables the brain to effortlessly and selectively perceive and understand what is in the left or right hand at any given moment. Despite the obvious importance of attentional processing for bimanual perception and the coordination of hand movements, how spatial attention deployment to the hands modulates the encoding of touch information remains poorly understood. This research investigates the effects of spatial attention on touch. This project is expected to impact society by advancing understanding of the brain mechanisms supporting touch and attentional selection on the hands, which could enhance diagnosis and monitoring of sensorimotor dysfunctions, and inform the design of advanced neuroprosthetics. The project will promote the participation and education of community college students in neuroscience and related STEM fields. Using computational neuroimaging methods and non-invasive brain stimulation, this research will elucidate the effects of spatial attention on information encoding and signal transmission in the human somatosensory cortex. A major research objective is to characterize spatial attention effects on somatosensory stimulus encoding. This objective will be achieved using novel fMRI encoding models that describe population-level tuning for vibration frequency information. These models will be used to establish where and how spatial attention signals – and their potential interaction with limb position manipulations – modulate the encoded vibration representations in the human brain. A second major research objective is to characterize spatial attention effects on signal transmission in the somatosensory cortical system. This objective will be achieved by combining causal manipulations of brain activity, using transcranial magnetic stimulation, with behavioral experiments and functional neuroimaging. These multimodal approaches will be used to establish state-dependent processing principles in the somatosensory system. Collectively, the research program will yield novel insights into how spatial attention to the hands flexibly shapes somatosensory feature encoding and network communication in human neocortex.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.