INTEGRATION OF ERPS AND FMRI IN STUDIES OF ATTENTION

描述(摘自申请者的摘要)：视觉选择性注意 是一种强大的大脑机制，使相关的感觉信息能够 得到有效处理，同时最大限度地减少不相关、 令人分心的事件。尽管三十多年来的心理物理和 生理学研究，令人惊讶的是对神经知之甚少 人类这一基本认知过程的机制。特别是， 视觉处理的不同阶段究竟是如何受到选择性 空间注意力仍然不清楚。这项提案将调查视觉 使用ERP和fMRI相结合的方法进行选择性注意，既允许 注意的功能解剖(FMRI)和时程(ERPs) 过程有待阐明。总体目标是了解 人类视皮层信息处理中的选择性注意， 并确定系统的详细功能架构 牵涉其中。L的自主空间注意机制 被调查对象，以及空间注意与特征、对象的关系 和运动处理将被解决。拟议中的实验已经 目前的生理模型的直接理论结果 通过提供关于两个解剖的关键证据的注意力选择 注意相关神经加工调制的轨迹和时程 在完好无损的人脑中。此外，由于结合了事件相关电位和功能磁共振 要使用的方法是，大脑皮质活动与 信息处理过程中局部脑血流量的变化 也将进行研究。因为注意过程的缺陷伴随着 各种精神、神经和发育障碍， 人脑注意系统基本特性的研究 代表了正在进行的定性工作中的重要核心知识， 诊断和治疗人类的这种情况。

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.