Sensory Integration and Neural Plasticity of Audition

人脑是地球上最复杂的系统之一。在过去的一个世纪里，自然科学和工程学各学科的研究努力都在努力了解大脑的功能。虽然在阐明感觉和认知过程的关键功能方面取得了显著进展，但经典范式提供了一幅关于人类认知的不完整图景，就像观看拼图游戏的孤立碎片无法捕捉到它们可以形成的美丽风景一样。例如，选择性注意就是这样一个关键部分：它从环境中所有可用的信息中选择与任务相关的特征。在所谓的“鸡尾酒会”情境中，通过动态跟踪相关的听觉信息(声音、背景噪音)和视觉信息(嘴唇动作、面部和肢体动作)，将它们与内部知识(语言的语义结构、对话的语境)相结合，并选择适当的运动指令(例如，当说话者交替或同时出现时，最佳地在空间中定位一个人的身体)，选择性注意奠定了我们在所谓的“鸡尾酒会”情景中关注众多对话的非凡能力。 这项研究计划的目标是从理论上更深入地了解人类的听觉认知，它的层次动态，以及它是如何受到其他感觉和自然环境的影响的。特别是，我们将重点关注注意力和夹带，这两个关键过程动态地参与日常行动和感知，并涉及听觉与其他感官的结合。为了做到这一点，我们提出了一个神经行为框架，旨在操纵刺激的生态有效性和可用的感觉背景。当参与者执行听觉和视听运动任务时，他们的大脑反应、生理活动以及他们的行为将被记录下来。采用高密度脑电图仪的尖端技术将被用来同时记录皮质和皮质下结构的活动。认知振荡理论中的动态系统模型和工具将被用来将大脑测量与行为联系起来。在听觉认知过程中产生的新知识将提供有用的证据，帮助弥合孤立的机制与它们在现实世界认知中的展开之间的差距。通过阐明影响听觉处理的关键参数并将它们组合在一起，该程序将指导进一步的研究，以了解自然认知和整个大脑功能。

The human brain is one of the most complex systems on Earth. Research efforts across the disciplines of the natural sciences and engineering have striven to understand brain function over the last century. While remarkable progress has been made in elucidating key functions underlying sensory and cognitive processes, classical paradigms provide an incomplete picture of human cognition, very much like viewing isolated pieces of a jigsaw puzzle fails to capture the beautiful landscape they can form. Selective attention for instance is one such critical piece: it selects task-relevant features from all the information available in the environment. Selective attention underlies our remarkable ability to attend to one conversation among many in a so-called “cocktail party” situation, by dynamically tracking relevant auditory (voices, background noise) and visual information (lip movements, face and body gestures), integrating them with internal knowledge (semantic structure of the language, context of the conversation) and selecting proper motor commands (such as optimally orienting one’s body in space when speakers alternate or concurrent sources appear). The goal of this research program is to gain a deeper theoretical understanding of auditory cognition in humans, its hierarchical dynamics and how it is influenced by the other senses and natural contexts. In particular we will focus on attention and entrainment, two key processes that are dynamically engaged in everyday action and perception, and involve the combination of audition with other senses. To do so we propose a neuro-behavioral framework designed to manipulate the ecological validity of stimuli and the available sensory context. Participant’s brain responses, physiological activity as well as their behavior will be recorded, while they perform auditory, and audio-visuo-motor tasks. A cutting-edge technique employing high-density electro-encephalography will be used to simultaneously record activity from both cortical and subcortical structures. Dynamic systems models and tools from the oscillatory theory of cognition will be used to link brain measures with behaviour. Novel knowledge generated on auditory cognitive processes will provide useful evidence to help bridge the gap between isolated mechanisms and their unfolding in real-world cognition. By elucidating critical parameters that affect auditory processing and piecing them together, this program will guide further research towards the understanding of natural cognition and brain function at large.