How does dividing attention limit object recognition and modify relevant neural activity?

项目总结/摘要 到达我们眼睛的信息并不总是与我们所感知的相对应。强烈关注 影响着我们所见以及我们如何解读世界。与此同时，我们的日常活动往往需要我们 将注意力分散到两个或更多的事情上。以前的研究量化了分散注意力会降低多少 任务表现产生了不同的结果，这些影响的神经基础知之甚少。 我的建议是建立在最近关于对掩蔽词的注意力分散的研究的基础上的， 注意力瓶颈（一次只能处理一个单词）。具体来说，我将继续假设， 对象识别中的分散注意力效应是由于注意力瓶颈。我计划结合使用 理论驱动的心理物理学和功能性神经影像学研究（1）有多少分散注意力损害 人类识别物体的能力，（2）分散注意力改变神经活动的程度，以及 大脑，这发生，（3）是否可以解释为什么病人的注意力分散后皮质萎缩 （阿尔茨海默病的一种影响视觉区域的变体）在识别同时呈现的 对象 将视觉和注意力放在一起研究，对我们理解视觉和注意力之间的关系有着重要的意义。 大脑和行为之间的联系我的发现将通过告知认知状态如何关联的理论产生影响 大脑活动，以及这些变化如何成为我们做出感知判断的能力限制的基础。超出 有利于推进视觉和注意力处理领域，拟议的研究也将使一个 影响理解涉及知觉和注意力处理功能缺陷的条件，包括 衰老和痴呆

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The information that reaches our eyes doesn’t always correspond to what we perceive. Attention strongly influences what we see and how we interpret the world. At the same time, our daily activities often require us to divide attention across two or more things. Previous studies quantifying how much divided attention degrades task performance have produced varying results, and the neural bases for these effects are poorly understood. My proposal builds on recent studies of divided attention to masked words, which were consistent with an attentional bottleneck (only one word can be processed at a time). Specifically, I will pursue the hypothesis that divided attention effects in object recognition are due to an attentional bottleneck. I plan to use a combination of theory-driven psychophysics and functional neuroimaging to investigate (1) how much divided attention impairs human ability to recognize objects, (2) how much divided attention changes neural activity, and where in the brain this takes place, and (3) whether divided attention can explain why patients with posterior cortical atrophy (a variant of Alzheimer’s disease affecting visual areas) exhibit deficits in recognizing simultaneously presented objects. Studying vision and attention together can have powerful implications for our understanding of the relationship between brain and behavior. My findings will make an impact by informing theories of how cognitive states relate to brain activity, and how these changes underlie the limits in our ability to make perceptual judgments. Beyond the benefit to advancing the fields of visual and attentional processing, the proposed research will also make an impact in understanding conditions involving deficits in perceptual and attentional processing functions, including aging and dementias.