Linking the Role of Early Perceptual Competition in Motor Output Efficiency

目前提案中的研究围绕眼球运动是如何编程和执行的，以及哪些类型的刺激可以影响这些过程。它将调查视觉系统从早期刺激选择过程中获得的功能好处。一个重要的进化论解释是，早期的刺激优先顺序发生，以允许随后的运动和动作的准备，即，早期的视觉输入被选择来驱动随后的运动输出。这项研究计划的目标将探索早期刺激选择在启动控制后续眼球运动的后续神经信号中的作用。这项工作将通过连接这两个研究得很好但往往互不相连的研究领域，推动视觉和运动认知领域的发展。通过了解视觉刺激如何放大随后的运动动作，依赖于大脑知觉和运动中心之间的交互作用的康复技术可能会有新的发展。这项研究还将进一步开发一般的眼动和编程测量技术，并有助于我们理解哪些刺激因素影响日常但复杂的任务，如开车或在人群中寻找个人。

The research in the current proposal revolves around how eye movements are programmed and executed and what types of stimuli can influence these processes. It will investigate the functional benefits obtained from early stimulus selection processes by the visual system. One prominent evolutionary account is that early stimulus prioritization occurs to allow for the subsequent preparation of locomotion and action, that is, early visual input is selected to drive subsequent motor output. The objective of this research program will explore the role of early stimulus selection in priming subsequent neural signals that control subsequent eye movements. This work will advance the field of visual and motor cognition by bridging two well studied, but often unconnected, fields of research. Through understanding how a visual stimulus can amplify subsequent motor action, there is potential for new developments in rehabilitative techniques relying on interactions between perceptual and motor centres of the brain.This research will also further develop general eye movement and programming measurement techniques and contribute to our understanding of what stimulus factors affect oculomotor performance during every day, but complicated, tasks such as driving a car or searching for an individual in a crowd.