Elucidating mechanisms underlying fluctuations of sustained attention and their influence on memory

阐明持续注意力波动的机制及其对记忆的影响

• 批准号: 10413923
• 负责人: Eva Gjorgieva
• 金额: $ 4.46万
• 依托单位: DUKE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-06-15 至 2023-05-14
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10413923
• 关键词: Address; Affect; Attention; Attentional deficit; Behavior; Behavioral; Brain region; Caliber; Classification; Clinical; Cognitive; Coupling; Data; Disease; Dorsal; Face; Failure; Free Association; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Goals; Hippocampus (Brain); Image; Impairment; Individual; Lateral; Lead; Learning; Link; Maintenance; Measures; Memory; Methodology; Mind; Monitor; Movement; Music; Parietal; Participant; Pattern; Performance; Persons; Play; Population; Process; Pupil; Radar; Reaction Time; Reading; Research; Research Personnel; Role; Series; Thinking; Time; Tonic Pupil; Training; Variant; Visual Cortex; Work; base; cognitive function; cognitive process; cost; directed attention; distraction; executive function; forgetting; indexing; information processing; innovation; insight; instrument; lectures; markov model; natural flow; negative affect; neuromechanism; novel; operation; relating to nervous system; response; selective attention; sustained attention; visual tracking

Abstract Sustained attention (SA), the ability to maintain focus on a task over prolonged periods of time, is a fundamental cognitive process that directly impacts other cognitive functions, such as learning from a lecture or from reading. Fluctuations of SA are commonly observed, but their causes seem to be heterogenous, and the ways in which they influence ongoing information processing and subsequent memory are not well understood. Some researchers have proposed that SA fluctuations result from a growing tendency with increasing task duration towards mind-wandering (attention drifting towards internal thoughts or distractors), due to failure of executive control processes. Similarly, failures of executive control also tend to allow the capture of attention by external distractors. The main goal of this proposal is to investigate how the direction of attention (external vs. internal) and the level of control interact to determine fluctuations of SA, and how they affect current learning. In Aim 1, the applicant will investigate two types of attention lapses (externally distracted and mind-wandering) that can occur during SA, including the rates at which they occur over time and how they each influence subsequent memory. The applicant will implement a novel paradigm in which task-relevant object images are presented on top of much larger distracting face images, and thought probes are used to assess the individuals’ attention state as either on-task, externally distracted, or mind-wandering, while pupillary responses are recorded. The main hypothesis is that rates of external distraction and mind-wandering will increase over time as the maintenance of executive control diminishes. In addition, the applicant will investigate the distinct influence of each individual attention-lapse state on subsequent memory. This study will be the first to relate internal vs external lapses of attention during SA to memory performance using pupillometry measures. In Aims 2a and 2b, fMRI methodology, along with in-scanner pupillometry recordings, will be used to examine the neural underpinnings of external distraction vs mind-wandering during SA and to uncover the distinct neural mechanisms by which these attention states influence memory. This Aim will include novel application of attention-state classifier analyses of the fMRI data and how these states relate to the behavior and pupillometry measures, as well as innovative dynamic functional connectivity approaches to investigate the interplay within and between networks that gives rise to SA fluctuations and their effects on memory. This study will offer insights into the roles of the dorsal attention network, the default-mode network, and the fronto-parietal control network in SA, as well as the mnemonic costs of external distraction vs mind-wandering, to gain a deeper understanding of the neural mechanisms through which SA impacts memory. This project will substantially increase our understanding of the different ways in which SA can be disrupted and the unique influences that lapses in SA have on subsequent memory. Thus, the results of these studies may in turn lead to improvement in identifying SA deficits in both the normal population and in various clinical disorders, and suggest possible approaches as to how they may be addressed.

抽象的 持续注意力（SA），即长时间保持专注于某项任务的能力，是一种 直接影响其他认知功能的基本认知过程，例如从讲座中学习或 来自阅读。 SA 的波动是常见的，但其原因似乎是异质的，并且 它们影响正在进行的信息处理和随后的记忆的方式尚不清楚。 一些研究人员提出，SA 波动是由于任务增加而呈增长趋势的结果 由于失败而导致走神（注意力转向内部想法或干扰因素）的持续时间 执行控制流程。同样，执行控制的失败也往往会导致注意力被 外部干扰因素。该提案的主要目标是研究注意力的方向（外部与内部）如何变化。 内部）和控制水平相互作用，决定 SA 的波动，以及它们如何影响当前的学习。在 目标 1，申请人将调查两种类型的注意力缺失（外部分心和走神）， 可能会在 SA 期间发生，包括它们随着时间的推移发生的速率以及它们各自如何影响后续 记忆。申请人将实现一种新颖的范例，其中与任务相关的对象图像呈现在 更大的分散注意力的面部图像的顶部，思想探针用于评估个人的注意力状态 无论是在执行任务、受到外部干扰还是走神，同时记录瞳孔反应。主要 假设是，随着时间的推移，随着时间的推移，外部干扰和走神的发生率会增加。 行政控制力减弱。此外，申请人将调查每个人的独特影响力 随后记忆的注意力缺失状态。这项研究将是第一个将内部失误与外部失误联系起来的研究 SA 期间使用瞳孔测量测量来注意记忆表现。在目标 2a 和 2b 中，fMRI 方法， 与扫描仪内瞳孔测量记录一起，将用于检查外部的神经基础 SA 期间的分心与走神，并揭示这些注意力的独特神经机制 状态影响记忆。该目标将包括功能磁共振成像注意力状态分类器分析的新应用 数据以及这些状态如何与行为和瞳孔测量测量以及创新动态相关 功能连接方法来研究网络内部和网络之间产生 SA 的相互作用 波动及其对记忆的影响。这项研究将深入了解背侧注意力的作用 SA中的网络、默认模式网络和额顶控制网络，以及助记符成本 外部分心与走神，通过以下方式更深入地了解神经机制 SA 会影响记忆。这个项目将大大增加我们对不同方式的理解 哪些 SA 可以被破坏，以及 SA 的缺失对后续记忆的独特影响。因此， 这些研究的结果可能反过来会导致识别正常人群中 SA 缺陷的改进 以及各种临床疾病的情况，并提出解决这些问题的可能方法。