ND COBRE: ATTENTION AND THE REPRESENTATION OF VISUAL ENVIRONMENTS

本子项目是利用由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源的众多研究子项目之一。子项目和研究者（PI）可能已经从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金，因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。列出的机构是中心的，不一定是研究者的机构。想象一下，在一条繁忙的街道上开车，到处都是行人、其他车辆、交通标志和信号，以及潜在的道路危险。为了在这条街上安全行驶，你必须持续监控所有这些刺激，随时准备对任何需要立即反应的变化做出反应。如果大脑能同时呈现环境中的所有信息，那么处理这种复杂性就很简单了。然而，最近的证据表明，一个人对视觉环境的表征是相当稀疏的；在任何给定时间，环境中只有少量对象被表示。为了理解人类如何与复杂的视觉环境相互作用，确定环境的哪些方面包含在其表示中是至关重要的。该项目的目的是研究指导视觉信息获取的因素，以及由此产生的表征的性质。该项目的第一个具体目标是描述与场景表征发展相关的神经活动。为了做到这一点，提出了几个实验，在实验中，受试者观看场景，同时记录电生理数据；这些数据将用于得出语义处理、注意和场景表征之间关系的结论。第二个目的是将电生理数据与眼动记录结合起来，研究语义对注意力和眼动控制的影响。这些影响以前没有使用允许直接测量潜在过程的工具进行研究；电生理学方法提供了这样的工具。该项目的第三个具体目标是研究动态、交互环境的表现。在一系列的实验中，在模拟的驾驶环境中检查了场景表示。与传统的静态场景相比，这种方法提供了几个理论上的优势。第四个目的是确定分散注意力的任务的性质如何影响外围信息的获取和表征。除了对我们理解场景表示的贡献之外，这些实验也可能对现实世界的问题有重要的影响，比如驾驶分心或界面设计。Arthur Kramer是Gordon博士的个人项目导师。Kramer博士将每年访问Gordon博士的实验室一次（反之亦然），并将协助Gordon博士设计和解释实验，并为Gordon博士最终提交的R01拨款提案进行准备和批判性审查。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Imagine driving down a busy street full of pedestrians, other cars, traffic signs and signals, and potential road hazards. In order to drive safely down this street, you must continuously monitor all of these stimuli, ready to react to any changes that require immediate response. Dealing with this complexity would be straightforward if the brain simultaneously represented all information in the environment. Recent evidence suggests, however, that one''s representation of the visual environment is quite sparse; at any given time, only a small number of objects in the environment are represented. To understand how humans interact with a complex visual environment, it is critical to determine which aspects of the environment are included in its representation. The objective of this project is to investigate factors that guide the acquisition of visual information, and the nature of the resulting representation. The first specific aim of the project is to characterize the neural activity associated with the development of a scene representation. To do this, several experiments are proposed in which subjects view scenes while electrophysiological data are recorded; these data will be used to draw conclusions concerning the relationships among semantic processing, attention, and scene representation. A second aim is to use electrophysiological data in conjunction with eye movement recording to investigate semantic effects on attention and eye movement control. These effects have not previously been studied using tools that permit direct measurement of underlying processes; electrophysiological methods provide such tools. The third specific aim of the project is to examine the representation of dynamic, interactive environments. In a series of experiments, scene representation is examined within a simulated driving environment. This approach provides several theoretical advantages over the more traditional use of static scenes. The fourth aim is to determine how the acquisition and representation of peripheral information is affected by the properties of a distracting task. In addition to its contributions to our understanding of scene representation, these experiments may also have important implications for real-world problems, such as driving distraction or interface design. Arthur Kramer serves as Dr. Gordon's Individual Project Mentor. Dr. Kramer will visit Dr. Gordon's laboatory once per year (and vice versa), and will assist Dr. Gordon in the design and interpretation of experiments, and with the preparation and critical review of Dr. Gordon's eventual R01 grant proposal submission.