Probing the Neural Basis of Visual Working Memory in Early Development

探索早期发展中视觉工作记忆的神经基础

• 批准号: 9026776
• 负责人: JOHN P SPENCER
• 金额: $ 46.43万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2021-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9026776
• 关键词: 3 year old; 5 year old; Accounting; Address; Adult; Age; Attention; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Autistic Disorder; Axon; Behavior; Behavioral; Biological Neural Networks; Brain; Child; Clinical; Cognition; Cognitive; Data; Detection; Development; Diagnosis; Fostering; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Goals; Gold; Grant; Growth; Heart; Human; Hyperactive behavior; Image; Individual; Individual Differences; Infant; Intervention; Language; Lead; Liquid substance; Longitudinal Studies; Measurement; Measures; Memory impairment; Methods; Mind; Modeling; Myelin; Nature; Near-Infrared Spectroscopy; Participant; Performance; Play; Population; Populations at Risk; Process; Property; Protocols documentation; Research; Risk; Short-Term Memory; Sleep; Specific qualifier value; Staging; Testing; Theoretical model; Time; Translating; Visual; Visuospatial; Water; Work; base; brain behavior; cognitive performance; cognitive system; early childhood; hemodynamics; infancy; innovation; mathematical ability; memory process; myelination; neuroimaging; neuromechanism; personalized intervention; public health relevance; relating to nervous system; response; simulation; theories; vision development; visual cognition

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Working memory has been dubbed the heart of intelligent behavior, and a core property of this critical cognitive system is its highly limited capacity. Working memory capacity limitations are reliably associated with individual differences in many basic forms of cognition (e.g., language and mathematical abilities), and working memory deficits have been observed in at-risk populations, including children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, and children born preterm. Given these influences, understanding the development of working memory capacity limits has broad implications and may be critical to intervention efforts with atypically developing children. This grant focuses on the development of a central type of working memory called visual working memory (VWM). VWM plays a key role in much of visual cognition, comparing percepts that cannot be simultaneously viewed and identifying changes in the world when they occur. Research has shown that VWM develops dramatically between infancy and 5 years old, and a recent dynamic neural field (DNF) model of VWM has formalized a candidate neural mechanism for how VWM capacity changes in early development and why such changes vary across tasks. A key goal of the grant is to test this theoretical account at neural and behavioral levels. In particular, we will conduct an accelerated longitudinal study from 6 months to 4.5 years. At each age, children will complete two functional neuroimaging sessions and a structural neuroimaging session. We will use these data to examine: (1) whether the DNF model captures individual developmental trajectories in VWM performance from 6 months to 4.5 years; (2) whether the DNF model predicts functional changes in the VWM brain network in early development; and (3) whether changes in DNF parameters over development are explained by localized changes in myelin content within the VWM network. Results from this grant will set the stage for extensions of our approach to examine longitudinal changes in at-risk populations. This work will also foster an innovative approach to individualized interventions guided by a neural process model of VWM that speaks to individual differences in both brain and behavior.

 描述（由申请人提供）：工作记忆被称为智能行为的核心，这一关键认知系统的核心特性是其高度有限的容量。工作记忆容量限制与许多基本认知形式（例如语言和数学能力）的个体差异可靠相关，并且在高危人群中观察到工作记忆缺陷，包括被诊断患有注意力缺陷/多动症、自闭症和早产儿的儿童。考虑到这些影响，了解工作记忆能力限制的发展具有广泛的意义，并且对于非典型发育儿童的干预工作可能至关重要。这笔资助的重点是开发称为视觉工作记忆（VWM）的核心工作记忆类型。 VWM 在许多视觉认知中发挥着关键作用，它可以比较无法同时观看的感知并识别世界发生的变化。研究表明，VWM 在婴儿期到 5 岁之间发展显着，最近的 VWM 动态神经场 (DNF) 模型已经正式确定了一种候选神经机制，用于解释 VWM 能力在早期发育过程中如何变化以及为什么这种变化因任务而异。该资助的一个关键目标是在神经和行为层面测试这一理论解释。特别是，我们将进行6个月至4.5年的加速纵向研究。在每个年龄段，孩子们将完成两次功能性神经影像学课程和一次结构性神经影像学课程。我们将使用这些数据来检验：（1）DNF模型是否捕捉到了个体从6个月到4.5年的VWM表现的发展轨迹； （2）DNF模型是否预测VWM脑网络在早期发育过程中的功能变化； (3) DNF 参数在发育过程中的变化是否可以通过 VWM 网络内髓磷脂含量的局部变化来解释。这笔赠款的结果将为我们研究高危人群纵向变化的方法的扩展奠定基础。这项工作还将促进一种以 VWM 神经过程模型为指导的创新的个性化干预方法，该模型反映了大脑和行为的个体差异。