Do preparatory spatial attention signals in visual cortex predict performance?

视觉皮层中的准备性空间注意力信号可以预测表现吗？

• 批准号: 7351849
• 负责人: Chad Michael Sylvester
• 金额: $ 2.74万
• 依托单位: WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-02-01 至 2011-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7351849
• 关键词: Attention; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Auditory; Behavior; Behavioral; Brain region; Cues; Disease; Functional disorder; Goals; Human; Image; Individual; Intervention; Left; Link; Location; Measurement; Measures; Parietal; Patients; Performance; Photic Stimulation; Relative (related person); Research; Research Proposals; Resources; Schizophrenia; Sensory; Series; Side; Signal Transduction; Stroke; Syndrome; Temporal Lobe; Testing; Traumatic Brain Injury; Visual; Visual Cortex; blood oxygen level dependent; directed attention; human subject; improved; neglect; neuromechanism; relating to nervous system; research study; restoration; visual performance; visual stimulus

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): An important component of goal-directed behavior is the ability to voluntarily attend to a specific location, even before objects appear at that location. Brain regions in the parietal and temporal lobes control the allocation of spatial attention by modulating activity in early sensory regions, including visual cortex. These control regions are damaged in disorders of spatial attention such as unilateral neglect, a common and devastating syndrome that afflicts many stroke victims. Fortunately, visual cortex is often spared direct damage in many patients with neglect, although activity in this region is abnormal due to lack of appropriate modulation by control regions. Restoration of control over visual cortex is a potential means of intervention in patients with neglect. The long-term objective of this research proposal, therefore, is to understand the changes that higher-level brain regions produce in visual cortex to produce the behavioral phenomenon of spatially directed attention. Because there are independent resources for attending to the left and right sides of space, it is important to understand the changes in visual cortex that allow for the specific allocation of attention across (specific aim 1) and within (specific aim 2) visual hemifields. Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) imaging in healthy human subjects will be used to meet these objectives. By measuring neural signals following auditory spatial cues and prior to visual stimulation, it is possible to examine endogenous control signals in visual cortex uncontaminated by visual stimulus-evoked activity. Measurement of the distribution of endogenous signals across visual cortex during explicit manipulation of the locus of spatial attention as well as the location of upcoming distracting visual objects will indicate how precisely visual cortex can be modulated. Furthermore, the relationship of endogenous control signals to accuracy on an upcoming perceptual task at the locus of spatial attention provides a strong indication of the modulations essential for optimal goal-directed behavior. Some of the dysfunction associated with unilateral neglect, a disorder of spatial attention, is due to the loss of normal control over structurally intact brain regions. The goal of this research is to understand how control is exerted over these regions in healthy individuals, with the long-term aim of restoring appropriate control in sufferers of neglect. In addition, understanding the neural mechanisms of spatial attention may inspire directed therapies in other disorders of attention, including traumatic brain injury, schizophrenia, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

描述（由申请人提供）： 目标导向行为的一个重要组成部分是能够自愿关注特定位置，甚至在物体出现在该位置之前。顶叶和颞叶的大脑区域通过调节早期感觉区域（包括视觉皮层）的活动来控制空间注意力的分配。这些控制区域因空间注意力障碍而受损，例如单侧忽视，这是一种困扰许多中风患者的常见且具有破坏性的综合症。幸运的是，在许多被忽视的患者中，视觉皮层通常不会受到直接损伤，尽管由于控制区域缺乏适当的调节，该区域的活动异常。恢复对视觉皮层的控制是对忽视患者进行干预的潜在手段。因此，这项研究计划的长期目标是了解高层大脑区域在视觉皮层中产生的变化，以产生空间定向注意力的行为现象。由于有独立的资源来关注空间的左侧和右侧，因此了解视觉皮层的变化非常重要，这些变化允许在视觉半视野之间（特定目标 1）和内部（特定目标 2）进行注意力的特定分配。将使用健康人类受试者的血氧水平依赖（BOLD）成像来实现这些目标。通过测量听觉空间线索之后和视觉刺激之前的神经信号，可以检查未受视觉刺激诱发活动污染的视觉皮层中的内源控制信号。在显式操纵空间注意力的位置以及即将出现的分散注意力的视觉对象的位置期间，测量视觉皮层内源信号的分布将表明视觉皮层的调节精确程度。此外，内源控制信号与空间注意力处即将到来的感知任务的准确性之间的关系提供了对最佳目标导向行为所必需的调制的有力指示。与单侧忽视（一种空间注意力障碍）相关的一些功能障碍是由于对结构完整的大脑区域失去正常控制造成的。这项研究的目的是了解健康个体如何对这些区域进行控制，长期目标是恢复被忽视的患者的适当控制。此外，了解空间注意力的神经机制可能会启发其他注意力障碍的定向治疗，包括创伤性脑损伤、精神分裂症和注意力缺陷多动障碍。