The role of long-term contextual memory in attentional control

描述（由申请人提供）：环境中的视觉信息比我们一次处理的要多，选择性注意能力允许我们只选择与我们当前目标相关的信息。视觉注意理论通常认为，这种目标导向的选择依赖于维持工作中的即时任务优先级。 记忆，注意力系统使用该信息来确定在给定情况下关注或忽略哪些信息。因此，研究目标导向注意力控制的认知和神经机制的研究几乎完全集中在工作记忆系统在这一过程中的作用上。 与此同时，考虑到工作记忆的容量有限，以及大多数任务（以及相关目标）的复杂性，工作记忆中信息的主动维护不太可能单独负责目标导向注意。相反，在特定的环境背景下，与焦虑的经历可以导致长期记忆表征的形成，这些表征可以在未来遇到该背景时自动驱动注意力的分配。通过这种方式， 注意系统可以提高目标导向注意的效率，同时降低对有限容量的工作记忆过程的需求。更好地了解长期背景信息如何改变注意力系统中的神经处理，不仅从基础科学的角度来看很重要，而且还可以用于指导行为和药理学干预，旨在改善正常和紊乱大脑的选择性注意力能力。然而，目前还不清楚语境学习如何在神经水平上影响选择性注意。 为此，本研究的主要目的是 培训计划是通过在人类和非人类灵长类动物中采用比较电生理学方法，了解背景学习如何在神经元和系统水平上影响注意力。具体来说，目的是1）阐明使用头皮记录的EEG在人类和非人类灵长类动物中的上下文依赖性注意力学习的电生理学标记，以及2）使用单单位神经生理学技术来确定这些变化如何在单个神经元水平上实例化。通过这项工作，我的目标是发展人类和非人类灵长类动物电生理学方面的专业知识，补充我在行为和神经心理学方法研究记忆和注意力功能方面的专业知识。这将使我能够直接连接人类和动物的认知模型，并使我的基础研究更直接，更快速地转化为临床研究。 相关应用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is more visual information in the environment than we can process at one time, and selective attention abilities allow us to select only the information that is relevant to our current goals. Theories of visual attention typically propose that this goal-directed selection relies on the maintenance of immediate task priorities in working memory, with the attention system using this information to determine what information is attended or ignored in a given situation. As a result, studies examining the cognitive and neural mechanisms of goal-directed attentional control have focused almost exclusively on the role of working memory systems in this process. At the same time, given the limited capacity of working memory and the complexity of most tasks (and associated goals) it is unlikely that the active maintenance of information in working memory is solely responsible for goal-directed attention. Instead, experience with regularities in a given environmental context can lead to the formation of long-term memory representations that can automatically drive the allocation of attention upon future encounters with that context. In this way, learning-induced plasticity within the attentional system can increase the efficiency of goal-directed attention while simultaneously decreasing demands on limited-capacity working memory processes. A better understanding of how long-term contextual information changes neural processing within the attentional system is not only important from a basic science standpoint, but can also be used to inform behavioral and pharmacological interventions designed to improve selective attention abilities in both the normal and disordered brain. However, it is currently unknown precisely how contextual learning influences selective attention at the neural level. To this end, the primary research goal of this training proposal is to understand how contextual learning influences attention at both the neuronal and systems level, by employing a comparative electrophysiological approach in humans and non-human primates. Specifically, the aims are to 1) elucidate electrophysiological markers of context-dependent attentional learning in humans and non-human primates using scalp-recorded EEG, and 2) use single-unit neurophysiological techniques to determine how these changes are instantiated at the level of individual neurons. Through this work, my goal is to develop expertise in both, human and non- human primate electrophysiology, complementing my expertise in behavioral and neuropsychological approaches to the study of memory and attention function. This will provide me the ability to directly bridge human and animal models of cognition, as well as allowing more direct and rapid translation of my basic research to clinically relevant applications.