Studies of Attention Using Combined ERPs and fMRI

描述(改编自申请者的摘要)：有选择地 将注意力集中在我们的感觉输入部分是一种关键的大脑功能 这使我们能够增强对高优先级刺激的处理 环境。例如，一个人可以选择性地听一位演讲者的 语音，同时忽略其他几个同时进行的对话。有了远见， 注意视野的特定部分会带来更快和更好的结果 对该空间区域中的刺激的辨别。选择性平均化 事件相关电位(ERPs)的能力和高时间分辨率 为注意力相关大脑的时间安排提供了相当大的洞察力 机制；然而，事实证明，很难准确地说明其 解剖学来源。正电子发射断层扫描对注意力的研究 (PET)和区块设计功能磁共振成像(FMRI)，在 另一方面，已经确定了一些关键的大脑区域，这些区域是 注意背后的电路，但这些研究没有提供关于 识别出的大脑区域的神经活动的时间。现在 该项目将ERPs和fMRI结合起来，研究功能性神经解剖学和 视觉和听觉注意机制的计时，包括注意 视觉和听觉皮质中感觉输入的过滤，关系 在自愿注意和假定的自动感觉分析之间 以及自上而下注意力控制的神经回路。冲向 为了实现这些目标，我们将采用分析方法，使 分离注意力和任务不同方面的大脑活动 性能。五项研究--两项视觉研究、两项听觉研究和一项综合研究 提出了听觉和视觉--正常受试者将在其中执行 FMRI扫描时的注意任务和脑活动的高密度事件相关电位 都被记录下来了。这些功能成像数据集将被组合和映射 到相应的结构MM图像上来考察功能 人类视觉和听觉注意的基础电路和机制。 这项研究对心理健康问题具有重要意义，因为 选择性注意障碍会导致各种临床疾病， 包括精神分裂症，注意力缺陷障碍，阿尔茨海默病， 偏瘫综合征和学习障碍。拟议中的实验将 增强我们对激活模式和潜在机制的理解 无论是正常的注意力还是紊乱的注意力。

DESCRIPTION(adapted from applicant's abstract): The ability to selectively focus attention on portions of our sensory input is a critical brain function that enables us to enhance the processing of high priority stimuli in the environment. For example, a person can listen selectively to one speaker's voice while tuning out several other simultaneous conversations. With vision, attending to a particular part of the visual field results in faster and better discrimination of stimuli in that region of space. The selective averaging capabilities and high temporal resolution of event-related potentials (ERPs) have provided considerable insight into the timing of attention-related brain mechanisms; however, it has proven difficult to precisely specify their anatomical sources. Studies of attention using positron emission tomography (PET) and block-design functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), on the other hand, have identified a number of key brain regions that are part of the circuitry underlying attention, but these studies do not provide information on the timing of the neural activity in the identified brain regions. The present project combines ERPs with fMRI to study both the functional neuroanatomy and timing of visual and auditory attention mechanisms, including attentional filtering of sensory inputs in visual and auditory cortices, the relationship between voluntary attention and putatively automatic sensory-analysis processes, and the neural circuitry of top-down attentional control. Toward these goals, we will incorporate analytic methods that will permit the isolation of brain activity for different aspects of attention and task performance. Five studies -- two visual, two auditory, and one combined auditory and visual -- are proposed, in which normal subjects will perform attention tasks while fMRI scans and high-density ERPs of their brain activity are recorded. These functional imaging data sets will be combined and mapped onto the corresponding structural MM images to investigate the functional circuitry and mechanisms underlying visual and auditory attention in humans. This research has important implications for mental health problems, because disturbances in selective attention contribute to various clinical disorders, including schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder, Alzheimer's disease, hemineglect syndrome, and learning disabilities. The proposed experiments will enhance our understanding of the activation patterns and mechanisms underlying both normal and disordered attention.