Micro- and macro-scale cortical dynamics underlying visual attention

描述（由申请人提供）：视觉世界包含的信息比大脑可以处理的更多。幸运的是，我们有能力通过选择性注意机制影响哪些信息源获得优先处理，这种能力对日常生活至关重要。注意力涉及大脑在整体水平上的协调，以控制在局部水平上运行的功能专门化大脑区域中的处理资源的平衡。然而，到目前为止，研究注意力神经基础的实验室技术，如人类头皮脑电图和灵长类动物的单单位记录，一次只能对这两种操作水平中的一种敏感。本研究项目的目标是将这两种方法联合收割机结合在一个单一的综合研究中，以表征这两个层次的大脑功能，全球和本地，在控制选择性注意力的过程中如何相互作用。我们已经制定了一个精心滴定的研究战略，将通过三个系统和具体的目标实现这一总体目标。我们将开始建立基线测量的相关变异性之间的联系，在小群体的神经元和脑电图信号测量在头皮上，无论是在自发的大脑状态，以及在基本的视觉感知。然后，我们将通过引入内源性选择性注意任务来增加一层复杂性，使我们能够将范围从低层次感知扩展到更高层次的认知过程。最后，着眼于从前两个目标获得的知识的潜在应用，我们将监测注意力信号与“闭环”系统。这将使我们能够监测动物的自然注意力波动，以便以上下文最佳方式呈现刺激。这种“视大脑状态而定”的系统在广泛的应用中具有明显的优势。由于这是一个培训奖，这个项目的另一个主要目标是培训博士。斯奈德，一个有前途的博士后研究员，在非人类灵长类动物的单单位电生理学所需的技术，以及将需要在整个什么无疑将是他作为一个独立的科学家漫长而富有成效的职业生涯的专业实践。在这个项目结束时，Snyder博士将接受灵长类动物电生理学实践方面的一流培训，这将补充他在人类EEG方法方面的成熟和成熟的专业知识，加强他作为创新和成功的神经科学家的基础。从科学的角度来看，我们将开发出一种跨越局部和全局大脑功能水平的注意力控制模型。这一进展不仅有利于注意力研究本身，而且将为未来研究其他在一系列空间尺度上类似运作的大脑过程提供一个框架。了解健康个体的注意力功能对于指导涉及注意力缺陷的疾病（包括自闭症、精神分裂症和注意力缺陷障碍）的潜在治疗干预至关重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The visual world contains more information than the brain can process. Fortunately, we have some ability to influence which sources of information receive processing priority through the mechanism of selective attention, and this ability is critical for daily life. Attention involves coordination across the brain at a global level to contol the balance of processing resources in functionally-specialized brain areas operating at a local level. To date, however, laboratory techniques for investigating the neural bases of attention, such as human scalp EEG and single-unit recordings in primates, have been sensitive to only one of these two levels of operation at a time. The goal of this research project is to combine these two methods in a single comprehensive investigation to characterize how these two levels of brain function, the global and the local, interact during control of selective attention. We hav developed a carefully titrated research strategy that will achieve this overarching goal through three systematic and specific aims. We will begin by establishing baseline measures of the links between correlated variability in small populations of neurons and EEG signals measured at the scalp, both in the spontaneous brain state as well as during basic visual perception. We will then add a layer of complexity by introducing an endogenous selective attention task, enabling us to expand our scope beyond low-level perception to higher-level cognitive processes. Finally, with an eye for potential applications of the knowledge gained from the preceding two aims, we will monitor attention signals with a 'closed-loop' system. This will enable us to monitor the animals' natural attentional fluctuations in order to present stimuli in a contextually optimal fashion. Such a 'brain-state-contingent' system would have clear advantages across a wide range of applications. Since this is a training award, another major goal of this project is the training of Dr. Adam C. Snyder, a promising postdoctoral fellow, in the techniques required for single-unit electrophysiology in non-human primates, as well as the professional practices that will be needed throughout what will undoubtedly be his long and productive career as an independent scientist. At the end of this project, Dr. Snyder will have received first-rate trainin in the practices of primate electrophysiology, which will complement his established and proven expertise in human EEG methods, strengthening his foundation as an innovative and successful neuroscientist. From a scientific perspective, we will have developed a model of attention control that spans local and global levels of brain function. This advancement will not only benefit attention research itself, but will provide a framework for future investigations of other brain processes that similarly operate across a range of spatial scales. An understanding of the functioning of attention in health individuals is essential to guide potential therapeutic interventions in disorders involving deficits in attention, including autism, schizophrenia and attention deficit disorder.