Neural mechanisms of Contexual Predictions in Visual Cognition and Action

描述(申请人提供)：人脑使用上下文和情感信息来促进视觉识别和行动，但对调节这种促进作用的神经机制知之甚少。我们假设，背景和情感促进过程已经从识别环境中的威胁的原始系统演变而来，因此应该与威胁识别和行动准备过程紧密联系在一起。这些基本问题以前没有在统一的框架内研究过，对基础神经科学以及许多精神和神经疾病，包括焦虑症、精神分裂症、抑郁症和自闭症都有重要的影响。在这里，我们建议研究语境和情感预测如何促进视觉识别和行动准备，结合心理物理学、功能磁共振成像和脑磁图/脑电。这项拟议的研究，除了解决这些新的问题外，还将使应试者能够获得脑磁图/脑电的强化训练，并在新的认知和情感神经科学领域--语境和情感加工--发展概念和理论理解。在语境和情感处理、脑磁图和功能连通性分析方面的新技能，与候选人在功能磁共振成像和物体识别方面的现有优势相结合，将有助于候选人在完成该奖项后为开始完全独立的研究计划做好最佳准备。公共卫生相关性：拟议的研究计划侧重于视觉认知和行动中的上下文和情感过程。因此，这项研究有可能为许多精神和神经障碍的神经和行为机制提供洞察力。背景联系过程被认为在抑郁症和自闭症患者中受到损害。拟议的研究对精神健康的影响尤其重要，因为情感处理异常几乎在所有精神疾病和许多神经疾病中都能观察到。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The human brain uses contextual and affective information to facilitate visual recognition and action, but little is known about the neural mechanisms mediating this facilitation. We have hypothesized that contextual and affective facilitation processes have evolved from a primitive system for identifying threats in the environment and therefore should be tightly linked with threat identification and action preparation processes. These fundamental questions have not been studied in a unified framework before and have important implications for both basic neuroscience, and for many mental and neurological disorders, including anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, depression, and autism. Here we propose to examine how contextual and affective predictions can facilitate visual recognition and action preparation with a combined approach of psychophysics, fMRI and MEG/EEG. The proposed research, in addition to addressing these novel questions, will allow the candidate to obtain intensive training in MEG/EEG and to develop conceptual and theoretical understanding in new cognitive and affective neuroscience domains of contextual and affective processing. The new skills in contextual and affective processing, MEG/EEG, and functional connectivity analyses, in conjunction with the candidate's existing strengths in fMRI and object recognition, will help to optimally prepare the candidate for starting a fully independent research program at the completion of this award. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed research program focuses on contextual and affective processes in visual cognition and action. For this reason, this research has the potential to provide insights into the neural and behavioral mechanisms that are malfunctioning in many mental and neurological disorders. Contextual association processes are thought to be impaired in depression and autistic patients. The implications of the proposed studies for mental health are particularly significant because affective processing abnormalities are observed in virtually all mental, and many neurological disorders.