The Neural Bases of Top-Down Attentional Control in Autism Spectrum Disorders

描述(由申请者提供)：选择性注意是一种重要的认知功能，它允许一个人在复杂的环境中专注于相关信息。当注意力被秘密地引导到预计会出现刺激的位置时，在该位置对刺激的处理将得到加强，而在可能出现潜在干扰的无人值守位置的处理将被抑制。在具有典型发育的成年人中，顶枕皮质阿尔法频段振荡活动(8-15赫兹)的偏侧增加已被公认为使用高密度脑电(EEG)进行注意力控制的指标。在患有自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)的个体中，异常的阿尔法振荡动力学表明，参与注意力控制的大脑区域被非典型地激活。此外，患有自闭症的人在脱离注意力焦点方面有很好的记录的行为障碍。这些个体还表现出与注意力控制有关的额顶区的非典型激活，并潜在地减少了注意力网络中关键区域之间的连接。然而，ASD患者注意控制的神经生理学缺陷尚未明确确定，可能是用于注意控制的神经网络是完整的，但潜在奖赏回路的非典型激活导致了ASD患者的注意控制缺陷。这项工作的目的是描述注意控制在ASD中的神经生理学特征，并调查动机在调节这些过程中的作用。 在受限或受限兴趣范围内的刺激(RCI，例如火车)通常比社会刺激对ASD患者更具激励作用，而且增加的动机已被证明增强了ASD注意控制区的激活。这可能是自闭症患者对社交和非社交线索的注意控制回路的非典型激活可以被调节。 通过呈现取决于这些线索的激励性RCI刺激。这项工作的指导模型认为，出生时的初始神经病理降低了对社会奖励的敏感性，导致注意控制脑区的非典型激活，这是通过对社会刺激的注意力受损和对RCI刺激的注意力增加来传播的。在这项拟议的工作中，预测注意力控制的阿尔法频段脑电指数将与RCI的标准ASD严重程度测量相关。这对于理解注意控制缺陷与自闭症患者的RCI之间的关系至关重要。视觉空间线索范式将与前述的阿尔法频段脑电指标结合使用，以检查注意控制的完整性。命令性刺激的动机突显将通过呈现参与者特定的RCI刺激来操纵，而预期注意控制将在非社交和社交领域进行考察。这些研究结果将与早期干预措施相关，以调节自闭症患者注意控制缺陷的非典型神经激活，并改善成年后的整体社会功能。 公共卫生相关性：选择性注意或专注于环境中的相关信息并抑制无关信息的能力是良好心理健康的关键功能。有证据表明，非典型的选择性注意模式是自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)社会功能缺陷的基础，但相关的大脑过程尚不清楚。本项目将调查ASD选择性注意缺陷的神经生理学基础，并提供基本的理解，以便设计基于证据的干预措施。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Selective attention is a crucial cognitive function that allows one to focus on relevant information in a complex environment. When attention is covertly directed to a location where a stimulus is predicted to appear, processing of stimuli at that location will be enhanced, whereas processing at unattended locations where potential distractors may appear will be suppressed. In adults with typical development, lateralized increases in alpha-band oscillatory activity (8-15 Hz) over parieto-occipital cortices have been well-established as a metric for attentional control using high-density electroencephalography (EEG). In individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), aberrant alpha oscillatory dynamics suggest that brain regions involved in attentional control are atypically activated. Additionally, individuals with ASD have well-documented behavioral impairments in disengaging the focus of attention. These individuals have also shown atypical activations in frontoparietal regions involved in attentional control, and potentially reduced connectivity between key regions in the attentional network. Yet, the neurophysiological deficits in attentional control in ASD have not been clearly established, and it is possible that the neural networks for attentional control are intact, but atypical activations of underlying reward circuitry contribute to attention control deficits in individuals with ASD. The goal of this work is to characterize the neurophysiology of attentional control in ASD and to investigate the role of motivation in regulating these processes. Stimuli that fall within restricted or circumscribed interests (RCI, e.g. trains) are often more motivating to individuals with ASD than social stimuli, and increased motivation has been shown to enhance activation in attention control regions in ASD. It may be that the atypical activation o attentional control circuits to social and non-social cues can be regulated in individuals with ASD through the presentation of motivating RCI stimuli that are contingent on these cues. The guiding model for this work holds that initial neuropathology at birth reduces sensitivity to socia reward, resulting in atypical activation of attention control brain areas, which is propagated by impaired attention to social stimuli and increased attention to stimuli of RCI. In the proposed work, alpha-band EEG indices for anticipatory attentional control will be correlated with standard clinical ASD severity measures for RCI. This will be crucial for understanding the relationship between attentional control deficits and RCI in ASD. A visuospatial cueing paradigm will be used in conjunction with the aforementioned alpha-band EEG metric to examine the integrity of attentional control. Motivational salience of imperative stimuli will be manipulated through presentation of participant-specific RCI stimuli, and anticipatory attentional control will be examined in nonsocial and social domains. The findings of these studies will have relevance for early interventions to regulate atypical neural activations underlying attentional control deficitsin ASD, and improve overall social functioning into adulthood. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Selective attention or the ability to focus on relevant information in the environment and suppress irrelevant information is a crucial function for good mental health. There is evidence that atypical selective attention patterns underlie social functioning deficits in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but the associated brain processes are unclear. This project will investigate the neurophysiological bases for selective attention deficit in ASD, and provide a fundamental understanding so that evidence-based interventions can be devised.