Interactions of scene analysis, short-term memory, and attention for auditory perceptual awareness

听觉感知只反映了拥挤环境中不同声源提供的声学信息的一部分。声学信息的哪一部分到达知觉取决于场景分析机制、短期记忆以及注意力的自动和自愿定向。本研究旨在进一步阐明在这些过程中哪些大脑皮层网络是听觉知觉所必需的和充分的。第一部分利用脑磁图(MEG)和声源分析技术，系统地研究了信息掩蔽条件下音频流的听觉皮层表征。接下来，将探索在感知和不感知主导音频流的情况下用于频率变化检测的听觉短期记忆。第二部分研究的重点是知觉检测本身与知觉行为报告的分离。为此，将建立一个实验装置，使用基于相机的眼球跟踪来估计基于相位性瞳孔放大的知觉和意志事件的发生。这一设置将与脑磁图和功能磁共振成像(FMRI)一起用于研究噪声中的音调检测和在参与者有或没有公开反应的情况下自我启动的注意力定向。

Auditory perceptual awareness reflects only part of the acoustic information available from different sound sources in crowded environments. Which part of the acoustic information reaches perceptual awareness depends on scene analysis mechanisms, short-term memory, and the automatic and voluntary orienting of attention. This study aims at further delineating which cortical networks involved in these processes are necessary and sufficient for auditory perceptual awareness. In the first part, auditory-cortex representations of tone streams under informational masking are probed systematically using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and source analysis techniques. Next, auditory short-term memory for frequency-change detection will be explored with and without perceptual awareness of the leading tone stream. The second part of the study is focused on the separation of perceptual detection per se and the behavioral report of the percept. To this end, an experimental setup will be established to estimate the occurrence of perceptual and volitional events based on phasic pupil dilation using camera-based eyetracking. This setup will be used together with MEG and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study tone detection in noise and self-initiated orienting of attention with and without overt responses of the participants.