Neuroimaging studies of auditory perception and attention

听觉感知和注意力的神经影像学研究

• 批准号: 194536-2011
• 负责人: Alain, Claude
• 金额: $ 2.91万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=546151
• 关键词: Neuroimaging; studies; auditory; perception; attention

Our auditory environment is often comprised of a myriad of sounds and yet there has been a paucity of work investigating how sound "objects" are represented in the brain and how attention is deployed to a particular sound object within a noisy environment. Determining how attention is allocated in complex auditory scenes is of interest for both practical and theoretical reasons. On the practical side, this information can guide the development of training regimens to help individuals with attention problems. On the theoretical side, it can provide insight into the neural mechanisms mediating auditory perception, attention, and cognition. The proposed research program combines behavioural techniques with scalp-recording of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and is developed around two distinct but interleaved themes: (1) assessing the representation of concurrent sound objects in memory using a change detection paradigm, and (2) assessing the deployment of attention within a noisy environment. We will examine the surprising failure of listeners to detect salient changes in auditory scenes (i.e., change deafness). This change deafness may occur because of a failure to properly encode various sound objects in memory and/or a problem in comparing various scenes. We will examine these hypotheses by comparing the neural activity associated with the encoding and retention processes. In addition, we will examine the similarities and differences in neural activity for change blindness and change deafness. The deployment of attention during auditory scenes will be investigated by asking participants to indicate whether an auditory scene is comprised of a predefined target sound (among other sounds occurring simultaneously at various locations). We anticipate that the deployment of auditory attention will be characterized by enhanced neural activity contralateral to the target location and that this neural activity will differ when attention is directed to sound identity (e.g., talker's voice) compared to attention allocated to location (i.e., talker's location). We will use the knowledge gained from these studies to refine our current object-based account of auditory attention.

我们的听觉环境通常由无数的声音组成，但很少有人研究声音“对象”在大脑中的表现方式，以及如何在嘈杂的环境中将注意力分配到特定的声音对象上。 出于实践和理论上的原因，确定复杂听觉场景中注意力的分配方式都很有意义。 在实践方面，这些信息可以指导训练方案的制定，以帮助有注意力问题的人。 在理论方面，它可以深入了解介导听觉感知、注意力和认知的神经机制。 拟议的研究计划将行为技术与事件相关大脑电位（ERP）的头皮记录相结合，并围绕两个不同但相互交织的主题开发：（1）使用变化检测范式评估记忆中并发声音对象的表示，以及（2）评估嘈杂环境中注意力的部署。 我们将研究听众未能发现听觉场景中显着变化（即变化性耳聋）的令人惊讶的失败。 这种变化性耳聋可能是由于未能在存储器中正确编码各种声音对象和/或比较各种场景时出现问题而发生的。 我们将通过比较与编码和保留过程相关的神经活动来检验这些假设。 此外，我们还将研究变化盲和变化聋的神经活动的异同。 将通过要求参与者指出听觉场景是否由预定义的目标声音（以及在不同位置同时发生的其他声音）组成来调查听觉场景中的注意力部署。 我们预计听觉注意力的部署将以目标位置对侧的神经活动增强为特征，并且当注意力指向声音身份（例如说话者的声音）时，与分配给位置（即说话者的位置）的注意力相比，这种神经活动将会有所不同。 我们将利用从这些研究中获得的知识来完善我们当前基于对象的听觉注意力描述。