Towards the neural basis of joint attention

注意力允许我们选择影响我们感官系统的信息的特定方面，使它们进入意识并选择适当的行为反应。注意力可以被突出的感官特征吸引，或者相反，它可以由内源性分配，由先前的经验、期望或有意识的决定引导。社交信号，如眼神或头部方向，是一类特别强大的引导注意力的感官线索。它们允许我们定义共同感兴趣的对象，共同关注的对象，这是发展(其他人)心智理论的关键一步。我们在前一个资助期对人类和恒河猴所做的研究使我们能够确定，在两个物种中非常相似的位置上，注视跟随激活了后上颞沟中一个独特的皮质区域(注视跟随补丁)。我们对猴子和人类凝视跟随的比较心理物理学研究表明，在由凝视线索引导的两种注意力转移中，都发生得非常快，而且不能完全控制，即使凝视跟随可能会被语境否决。考虑到人类和非人类灵长类动物在发育早期都会出现注视跟随行为这一事实，我们可以得出这样的结论：注视跟随是一种特定领域的能力。此外，这些强烈的相似之处表明了一种同源的能力。在前一个资助阶段获得的研究结果清楚地表明，注视跟随贴片(GFP)在协调注视跟随行为方面发挥着核心作用，而且非常具体。然而，到目前为止，这一结论仅基于相关数据(fMRI、单个单位和局部场电位记录)。因此，我们计划在猴子身上进行实验，使用微刺激、蝇毒酚注射和光遗传沉默进行可逆的激活/去激活，以确定GFP在凝视跟随中的因果作用，并计算出邻近的中面部贴片(MFP)的贡献。

Attention allows us to select particular aspects of information impinging on our sensory systems, to bring them to consciousness and to choose appropriate behavioural responses. Attention can be attracted by salient sensory features or, conversely, it can be allocated endogenously, guided by prior experience, expectations or conscious decisions. Social signals such as eye or head orientation are a particularly powerful class of sensory cues guiding attention. They allow us to define objects of common interest, objects of joint attention, a key step in developing a theory of (the other ones) mind. Our work on humans and rhesus monkeys in the preceding funding period has allowed us to establish that gaze following activates a distinct cortical region (the gaze following patch) in the posterior superior temporal sulcus in very similar locations in both species. Our comparative psychophysical work on gaze following in monkeys and man has established that in both shifts of attention guided by gaze cues occur very fast and cannot be fully controlled, even though gaze following may be vetoed by the context. Considering the fact that gaze following behaviour is known to emerge early during development in both human and non-human primates, we may conclude that gaze following is a domain-specific faculty. The strong similarities moreover suggest a homologous faculty. The findings obtained in the preceding funding period clearly suggest that the gaze following patch (GFP) plays a central and, moreover, highly specific role in orchestrating gaze following behaviour. Yet, this conclusion is so far solely based on correlational data (fMRI, single unit and local field potential recordings). We therefore plan to carry out experiments using reversible activation/deactivation with microstimulation, muscimol injections and optogenetic silencing in monkeys in order to establish a causal role of the GFP in gaze following and to work out the contribution of the neighbouring middle face patch (mFP).