INTEGRATION OF ERPS AND FMRI IN STUDIES OF ATTENTION

描述（改编自申请人摘要）：视觉选择性注意 是一种强大的大脑机制，能够使相关的感官信息， 有效地处理，同时最大限度地减少不相关的干扰， 分散注意力的事情 尽管三十多年的心理物理和 生理学研究，对神经系统的了解非常少。 这一人类基本认知过程的机制。 特别是， 视觉处理的各个阶段是如何受到选择性 空间注意力仍然不清楚。 该提案将研究视觉 使用ERP和fMRI相结合的方法进行选择性注意， 注意的功能解剖学（fMRI）和时间过程（ERPs） 过程有待阐明。 总体目标是了解 在人类视觉皮层的信息处理中的选择性注意， 并确定系统的详细功能架构 涉案 自愿空间注意的机制将是 空间注意与特征、客体、空间注意的关系 以及运动处理。 拟议的实验有 对当前生理模型的直接理论后果 注意力的选择，通过提供关键的证据， 注意相关神经加工调制的位置和时间过程 在完整的人脑中 此外，由于结合ERP和功能磁共振成像， 方法是使用，皮层电活动的关系， 信息处理过程中局部脑血流量的变化 也将被研究。 因为注意力过程的缺陷伴随着 各种精神、神经和发育障碍， 人脑注意系统基本特性的研究 代表了重要的核心知识，在正在进行的斗争， 诊断和治疗人类的这些疾病。

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): Visual selective attention is a powerful brain mechanism that enables relevant sensory information to be effectively processed, while minimizing interference from irrelevant, distracting events. Despite more than three decades of psychophysical and physiological research, remarkably little is known about the neural mechanisms of this fundamental cognitive process in humans. In particular, precisely how various stages of visual processing are affected by selective spatial attention remains unclear. This proposal will investigate visual selective attention using a combined ERP and fMRI approach that permits both the functional anatomy (fMRI) and time course (ERPs) of attentional processes to be elucidated. The overall goal is to understand the role of selective attention in information processing in the human visual cortex, and to identify the detailed functional architecture of the systems involved. The mechanisms of voluntary spatial attention wi]l be investigated, and the relationship of spatial attention to feature, object and motion processing will be addressed. The proposed experiments have direct theoretical consequences for current physiological models of attentional selection by providing key evidence about both the anatomical locus and time course of attention-related modulations of neural processing in the intact human brain. In addition, because a combined ERP and fMRI approach is to be used, the relationship of electrocortical activity to changes in regional cerebral blood flow (CBF) during information processing will also be studied. Because deficits in attentional processes accompany various psychiatric, neurological and developmental disorders, investigations of the basic properties of human brain attention systems represent important core knowledge in the ongoing struggle to characterize, diagnose and treat such conditions in humans.