Micro- and macro-scale cortical dynamics underlying visual attention

视觉注意力背后的微观和宏观皮层动力学

• 批准号: 8644337
• 负责人: Adam Christopher Snyder
• 金额: $ 5.33万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8644337
• 关键词: Animals; Area; Attention; Attention Deficit Disorder; Autistic Disorder; Award; Behavioral; Brain; Cognitive; Complement; Contralateral; Cues; Detection; Disease; Electrophysiology (science); Equilibrium; Eye; Foundations; Frequencies; Future; Goals; Health; Human; Image; Individual; Investigation; Knowledge; Laboratories; Life; Link; Measures; Methodology; Methods; Modeling; Monitor; Neurons; Outcome; Perception; Performance; Phase; Population; Postdoctoral Fellow; Primates; Process; Professional Practice; Research; Research Project Grants; Research Subjects; Resources; Scalp structure; Schizophrenia; Scientist; Signal Transduction; Source; Stimulus; Structure; Surface; Synaptic Potentials; System; Task Performances; Techniques; Therapeutic Intervention; Time; Training; Unit of Measure; Variant; Visual; Visual Perception; Visual attention; Visual system structure; base; brain computer interface; career; design; electrical potential; electrical property; gaze; imaging modality; improved; innovation; interest; nonhuman primate; operation; parallel processing; public health relevance; relating to nervous system; research study; selective attention; stimulus processing

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.

描述(申请人提供)：视觉世界包含的信息比大脑所能处理的要多。幸运的是，我们有一些能力通过选择性注意机制来影响哪些信息源获得优先处理，这一能力对日常生活至关重要。注意力涉及整个大脑在全局水平上的协调，以控制在局部水平运行的功能专门化脑区的处理资源的平衡。然而，到目前为止，用于研究注意力神经基础的实验室技术，如人类头皮脑电和灵长类动物的单位记录，一次只对这两种水平的操作中的一种敏感。本研究项目的目标是将这两种方法结合在一个单一的综合性研究中，以表征在选择性注意控制过程中，这两个水平的大脑功能--全局和局部--如何相互作用。我们已经制定了一项仔细滴定的研究战略，将通过三个系统和具体的目标来实现这一总体目标。我们将首先建立小群神经元的相关变异性与在头皮测量的脑电信号之间的联系的基线测量，无论是在自发的大脑状态下还是在基本视觉感知期间。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，使我们能够将我们的范围从低水平的感知扩展到更高水平的认知过程。最后，着眼于从前两个目标获得的知识的潜在应用，我们将用一个‘闭环系统’来监测注意信号。这将使我们能够监测动物的自然注意波动，以便以上下文最佳的方式呈现刺激。这种“大脑-状态-应急”系统将在广泛的应用中具有明显的优势。由于这是一个培训奖项，该项目的另一个主要目标是培训亚当·C·斯奈德博士，他是一位有前途的博士后研究员，培训非人类灵长类动物的单位电生理学所需的技术，以及在他作为一名独立科学家的漫长而富有成效的职业生涯中将需要的专业实践。在这个项目结束时，斯奈德博士将接受灵长类电生理学实践方面的一流培训，这将补充他在人类脑电方法方面成熟和成熟的专业知识，巩固他作为一名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球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，还将为未来对其他大脑过程的研究提供一个框架，这些过程类似地在一系列空间尺度上运行。对健康个体注意力功能的了解对于指导涉及注意力缺陷的疾病的潜在治疗干预至关重要，这些疾病包括自闭症、精神分裂症和注意缺陷障碍。