EFFECTS OF ATTENTION ON NEURONS IN SI AND SII CORTEX

需要资金来研究选择性注意如何影响反应 初级(SI)和次级(SII)躯体感觉皮质神经元。 动物被训练来来回切换它们的注意力焦点 在不同的感觉系统之间，在不同的皮肤部位之间，在 单一皮肤部位和不同感官之间的亚模式 由单一次模式提供的能力。其目的是调查 注意对躯体感觉信息加工的影响 系统。一种可能性是，注意力没有参与到 信息的处理和简单地“聚焦”一个特定的躯体主题 地点。另一种观点是，注意力是感知和 选择性地过滤对感知至关重要的神经元的反应。五 确定了具体的目标。第一个是调查差异。 当动物的注意力转移时，神经元的放电模式 从触觉到视觉或听觉 时间辨别任务。触控之间的信息整合 视觉(或听力)可能会导致不同的神经效应 跨通道任务。第二个目标是研究空间调谐 通过让动物的注意力在不同的 同一只手上的位置和不同位置之间的单独 举起手来。这里讨论的问题是注意力能有多紧 空间聚焦。第三个目标是调查是否不同 当注意力集中在 常见的皮肤部位。年鉴以一种振动的空间图案呈现在 他们的指尖，并被要求区分空间形式 或者振动的模式。SM(空间形式)、RA的响应 (颤动)和PC(振动)神经元在一个 常见的皮肤部位将被分析为特定的医疗效果。这个 第四个目标是调查不同的刺激属性 (纹理和形式)可以由相同的子通道(SM)服从 当注意力集中在共同的皮肤部位时，有选择地参与。这个 第五个目标是调查神经反应是否聚集在一起 形态特定的柱或板层。这一目标的数据将来自 解决前四个目标的实验。研究的重点是 解剖学组织是形态特定的机制可能是 限制为在特定于单个 刺激属性和选择性注意可通过以下任一方式起作用 激活整个列中的响应或通过激活 柱子内特定叶片内的响应。

Funds are requested to study how selective attention affects the responses of neurons in primary (SI) and secondary (SII) somatosensory cortex. Animals are trained to switch their focus of attention back and forth between different sensory systems, between different skin sites, between submodalities at a single skin site and between different sensory capacities subserved by a single submodality. The aim is to investigate the effects of attention on information processing in the somatosensory system. One possibility is that attention is not involved in the processing of information and simply "spotlights" a particular somatotopic location. Another, is that attention is an integral part of perception and selectively filters the responses of neurons critical for perception. Five specific aims are identified. The first is to investigate the differences in the pattern of neuronal firing when an animal's attention is diverted from touch to vision or audition while performing either a spatial or temporal discrimination task. The integration of information between touch and vision (or audition) may result in different neural effects during cross-modality tasks. The second aim is to investigate spatial tuning of attention by having the animal switch its attention between different locations on the same hand and between different locations on separate hands. The question addressed here is how tightly can attention be spatially focused. The third aim is to investigate whether different submodalities can be selectively engaged when attention is focused at a common skin site. Annals are presented with a vibrating spatial pattern on their finger tips and are required to discriminate either the spatial form or the pattern of vibration. The responses of SM (spatial form), RA (flutter) and PC (vibration) neurons that have receptive fields at a common skin site will be analyzed for modality specific affects. The fourth aim is to investigate whether different stimulus attributes (texture and form) subserved by the same submodality (SM) can be selectively engaged when attention is focused at a common skin site. The fifth aim is to investigate whether the neural responses cluster into modality specific columns or laminae. The data for this aim will come from experiments that address the first four aims. The point of examining the anatomical organization is that modality specific mechanisms may be restricted to operate within columns that are specific to a single stimulus attribute and that selective attention may function by either activating the responses within an entire column or by activating the responses within specific lamina within a column.