Rhythmic building blocks of human attention: How network oscillations link perception and action

注意力是选择和促进与行为相关的信息以有效地将感觉经验转化为目标导向行动所需的基本机制。传统上，注意力被概念化为一个连续的过程：一旦被分配，它就保持不变，直到下一次环境刺激被关注。然而，目前还不清楚当大脑的活动表现出显著的大起大落模式时，大脑是如何实现恒定的，也被称为神经元振荡。最近，在细粒度的时间尺度上探索注意力的几条线索显示，在隐蔽采样和公开探索期间，特定频率的行为波动与正在进行的大脑振荡一致。这一证据表明，注意力引导的感知可能是一个有节奏的过程，而不是一个纯粹的连续过程，在这个过程中，大脑振荡活动的不同阶段提供了不同的机会之窗，要么暗中采样，要么公开探索环境。然而，这些处理周期的功能和结构基础仍有待确定。此外，尚不清楚神经元振荡是否调节了隐蔽感觉采样和显性运动行为之间的相互作用。同样，目前也不清楚神经元振荡是否反映了一种预见性处理的一般机制，从而通知随后的感知和行动。在这里，我将通过将详细的行为测试与相关和因果方法相结合，在三个项目中解决这些悬而未决的问题。除了健康参与者的无创脑磁图外，我还将利用癫痫患者的直接脑记录，这些患者被植入颅内电极，用于癫痫发作的定位。这种方法为电生理数据提供了必要的时空分辨率，以更好地理解注意力引导的人类感知和行动的神经生理学。为了确定因果关系，我将同时使用神经心理损伤方法和直接脑刺激。项目1试图确定注意节律波动的结构和功能基础。项目2旨在确定感觉节律和运动节律是否是不同的过程，或者是否一个采样节律定期重新衡量它们对行为的贡献。最后，项目3将评估振荡是否提供了预测处理的一般机制。综上所述，我努力理解有节奏的大脑活动如何调节注意力引导的视觉感知和目标导向的行动之间的相互作用。该项目的成果将提供关于如何在网络一级实施注意力的详细信息，并阐明其在指导灵活的人类行为方面的作用。

Attention is a fundamental mechanism needed to select and boost behaviorally relevant information to efficiently translate sensory experiences into goal-directed actions. Traditionally, attention has been conceptualized as a continuous process: Once it is allocated, it remains constant until the next environmental stimulus is attended. However, it is unclear how the brain implements constancy when its activity exhibits prominent waxing and waning patterns, also termed neuronal oscillations. Recently, several lines of inquiry probing attention on a fine-grained temporal scale revealed frequency-specific behavioral fluctuations during both covert sampling and overt exploration that aligned with ongoing brain oscillations. This evidence suggests that attention-guided perception might be a rhythmic and not a purely continuous process, where different phases of oscillatory brain activity provide distinct windows-of-opportunity to either covertly sample or overtly explore the environment. However, the functional and structural basis of these processing cycles remains to be determined. Furthermore, it is unknown if neuronal oscillations mediate the reciprocal interplay of covert sensory sampling and overt motor behaviors. Likewise, it is also unclear if neuronal oscillations reflect a general mechanism for predictive processing informing subsequent perception and action. Here, I will address these outstanding questions in three projects by combining detailed behavioral testing with both correlative and causal methodologies. In addition to non-invasive magnetoencephalography in healthy participants, I will take advantage of direct brain recordings in epilepsy patients, who are implanted with intracranial electrodes for seizure onset localization. This approach provides electrophysiological data with the necessary spatiotemporal resolution to better understand the neurophysiology of attention-guided human perception and action. In order to establish causality, I will utilize both the neuropsychological lesion approach as well as direct brain stimulation. Project 1 seeks to identify the structural and functional basis of attentional rhythmic fluctuations. Project 2 aims to determine if sensory and motor rhythms are distinct processes or if one sampling rhythm periodically re-weights their contributions to behavior. Finally, Project 3 will assess if oscillations provide a general mechanism for predictive processing. Taken together, I strive to understand how rhythmic brain activity mediates the interplay of attention-guided visual perception and goal-directed actions. The outcome of this project will provide detailed information on how attention is implemented at the network level and elucidate its role in guiding flexible human behavior.