Studies of Attention Using Combined ERPs and fMRI

描述（由申请人提供）：我们有选择地将注意力集中在感官环境元素上的能力是一项关键的认知功能，使我们能够增强对高优先级刺激的处理。脑电生理学和血流动力学成像研究都表明，额叶和顶叶皮层的大脑区域网络在自上而下的注意力控制中发挥作用，从而影响低水平感觉皮层的处理。在之前的资助期内，我们使用功能性核磁共振成像（fMRI）和事件相关电位（ERPs）来帮助描述在自愿定向注意过程中，控制网络中特定区域的神经级联激活，以及自愿注意调节感觉皮质处理的各种方式。然而，注意力促进我们在现实世界中的表现的机制的许多方面仍不清楚。例如，我们之前的大部分工作都集中在自愿注意的机制上，当它被持续地引导到特定的位置或刺激通道时，或者当它只需要相对缓慢地引导时。然而，对于注意力的快速空间转移，神经控制机制似乎在一些重要方面有所不同。此外，还有许多其他基本的和生态上重要的方式，在这些方式中，注意力被用来加强对相关刺激的处理。例如，注意力转移和注意力控制也可以通过观察一个人的眼睛注视，通过视觉弹出刺激和刺激冲突来启动，所有这些似乎都比内源性指导线索以更快、更自动化的方式诱导注意力的参与。然而，神经过程的时间级联在这些其他情况下的注意力控制和影响尚未被描述。在这项资助的下一个阶段，我们建议继续我们对注意力神经机制的程序化研究，并针对注意力控制和影响的其他基本方式进行一系列新的研究。这些研究将包括：(1)自发和凝视线索触发的视觉空间注意的快速转移；(2)复杂视觉场景中空间注意的转移和聚焦；(3)调用注意来检测和解决视觉刺激信息冲突。与之前一样，我们计划结合erp， EEG， fMRI和行为测量来进行这些研究，目的是描述参与这些认知功能的神经过程和网络动力学的时间，顺序和位置，从而深入了解潜在的机制。公共卫生相关性：注意力是一种关键的认知功能，它使我们能够动态地选择环境中时时刻刻最相关的信息进行详细分析。该项目旨在阐明视觉注意的基本神经机制，因此与正常人一生中不断做的事情有关。此外，注意缺陷是多种精神和神经疾病的重要组成部分，包括精神分裂症、注意缺陷和多动障碍（ADHD）、自闭症和视觉感知障碍，因此阐明注意的基本认知脑机制对精神和神经健康研究至关重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our ability to selectively focus attention on elements of our sensory environment is a critical cognitive function that enables us to enhance the processing of high priority stimuli. Both electrophysiological and hemodynamic brain imaging studies have implicated a network of brain areas in the frontal and parietal cortices as playing a role in imparting top-down attentional control to influence processing in low-level sensory cortices. In the previous grant period we used functional MRI (fMRI) and event-related potentials (ERPs) to help delineate the neural cascade of activations in specific regions in this control network during the voluntary orienting of attention, as well as various of the ways in which voluntary attention can modulate processing in the sensory cortices. However, many facets of the mechanisms by which attention facilitates our performance in the real world remain unclear. For example, most of our previous work focused on the mechanisms of voluntary attention when it was either directed in a sustained way to a particular location or stimulus channel, or when it needed to be oriented only relatively slowly. It seems likely, however, that for rapid spatial shifts of attention the neural control mechanisms differ in some important ways. Moreover, there are numerous other fundamental and ecologically important ways in which attention is invoked for enhancing the processing of relevant stimuli. For example, attentional shifts and attentional control can also be initiated by viewing an individual's eye gaze, by visual-popout stimuli, and by stimulus conflict, all of which appear to induce the engagement of attention in a faster and more automatized way than with endogenous instructional cues. However, the temporal cascade of the neural processes underlying attentional control and influence in these other circumstances has yet to be delineated. In the next period of this grant, we propose to continue our programmatic investigation of the neural mechanisms of attention with a new set of studies directed toward these other fundamental ways in which attentional control and influence is invoked. These will include study of: (1) the rapid shifting of both voluntary and gaze-cue-triggered visual spatial attention, (2) the shifting and focusing of spatial attention within a complex visual scene; and (3) the invocation of attention for detecting and resolving conflicting visual stimulus information. As before, we plan to combine ERPs, EEG, fMRI, and behavioral measures to perform these studies, with the aim to delineate the timing, sequence, and location of the neural processes and network dynamics involved in these cognitive functions, thereby gaining insight into the underlying mechanisms. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Attention is a critical cognitive function that allows us to dynamically select for detailed analysis the most pertinent information in our environment from moment to moment. This project is aimed at elucidating the basic neural mechanisms of visual attention, and thus is relevant for what normal individuals do constantly throughout their lives. In addition, attentional deficits form key components of a variety of mental and neural illnesses, including schizophrenia, Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), autism, and disorders of visual perception, and thus elucidating the basic cognitive brain mechanisms of attention is essential to both mental and neural health research.