Understanding attention-control across functional systems and temporal scales

描述（由申请人提供）：几乎每一种神经精神疾病（例如，抑郁症和精神分裂症、注意力缺陷障碍、强迫症和双相情感障碍）表现出注意力控制的缺陷：注意行为相关的感官刺激并忽略不相关刺激的能力。当然，注意力控制是注意力缺陷障碍的核心因素，并且被认为在成瘾行为中起着重要作用。这些缺陷可能是由于分心抑制受损或由于注意力持续波动而发生的，当思想漫游时。我们建议制定措施，使我们能够在神经水平上区分这些缺陷，描述它们的相互作用，并促进跟踪注意力表现，这对于准确地评估这些缺陷至关重要。 诊断和监测治疗效果。为了实现这一点，我们将结合联合收割机脑电图（EEG）（特别是与短期过程和频谱特异性相关）和功能性MRI（与持续注意力的缓慢演变相关，并提供EEG不易观察到的空间特异性）的互补方法来测量注意力的快速和缓慢变化。这些措施最终将使我们能够解释内部状态和注意力分散何时以及为何会损害行为。 公共卫生相关性：这个项目将提高我们对大脑机制之间的相互作用的理解，使我们能够忽略分心和大脑机制，使我们能够保持注意力延长时间-两者几乎在每一个神经精神疾病中都受到损害。为了回答这些问题，我们将同时测量大脑中以毫秒为单位的短暂电变化和大脑代谢中以秒和分钟为单位的较慢波动。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Nearly every neuropsychiatric disorder (e.g., depression & schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and bipolar disorder) shows deficits in attention control: the ability to attend to behaviorally relevat sensory stimuli and ignore irrelevant stimuli. Attentional control is, of course, a central factor n the attention deficit disorders and is thought to play a significant role in addictive behaviors. These deficits can occur because of impaired suppression of distractions or because of fluctuations in sustaining of attention, when the mind wanders. We propose to develop measures that will allows us to distinguish between these deficits at the neural level, describe their interactions and facilitate tracking of attention performance that is imperative for accurate diagnosis and monitoring of treatment efficacy. To achieve this we will combine the complementary methods of electroencephalography (EEG) (especially relevant to short term processes and spectral specificity) and functional MRI (relevant to slow evolutions in sustained attention and providing spatial specificity not readily observed with EEG) to measure fast and slow changes in attention. These measures will ultimately allow us to explain when and why internal state and distractibility impair behavior. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project will improve our understanding of the interactions between brain mechanisms that allow us to ignore distractions and brain mechanisms that allow us to sustain attention for extended time periods - both compromised in nearly every neuropsychiatric disorder. We will simultaneously measure brief electrical changes in the brain, occurring on the order of milliseconds, and slower fluctuations in brain metabolism, occurring on the order of seconds and minutes, in order to answer these questions.