Understanding attention-control across functional systems and temporal scales

描述(申请人提供)：几乎每一种神经精神障碍(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)都显示出注意力控制方面的缺陷：注意到与行为相关的感官刺激并忽略无关刺激的能力。当然，注意力控制是注意力缺陷障碍的一个中心因素，被认为在成瘾行为中起着重要作用。这些缺陷的发生可能是因为对分心的抑制受到损害，或者因为注意力的持续波动，当大脑走神时。我们建议开发一种方法，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，并促进对注意力表现的跟踪，这对于准确来说是必不可少的。 诊断和监测治疗效果。为了实现这一点，我们将结合脑电(EEG)(特别是与短期过程和光谱特异性相关)和功能MRI(与持续注意力的缓慢演变相关，并提供脑电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分心会损害行为的时间和原因。 与公共健康相关：这个项目将提高我们对大脑机制和大脑机制之间的相互作用的理解，大脑机制允许我们忽略分心，而大脑机制允许我们在更长的时间内保持注意力--两者几乎在所有神经精神疾病中都受到了影响。我们将同时测量大脑中发生在毫秒量级的短暂电变化，以及发生在秒和分钟量级的大脑新陈代谢的较慢波动，以回答这些问题。

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.