Brain mechanisms of flexible cognitive control

我们所想和所做的一切都取决于我们的注意力，但我们的大脑是如何做到这一点的，我们知之甚少。在这个节目中，我们使用先进的脑成像技术来研究人类大脑的活动，探讨我们的大脑如何灵活地指导我们的神经资源来集中注意力并实现我们的目标。我们测试了这样一种观点，即驱动我们只关注世界上最重要方面的能力的神经系统，也使我们在完成任务或目标改变时，能够灵活、快速地随时转移注意力。这一系统的重要性可以清楚地看到，当它受到损害，例如，中风或肿瘤，往往终身残疾和相应的医疗负担。我们开发并使用先进的分析，多模态神经成像和脑刺激，来询问我们周围世界的重要部分是如何在这个系统中编码的，以及神经活动在大脑区域之间传递时是如何发展和变化的。通过这种方式，我们的目标是解决认知神经科学中最基本、最持久的谜团之一：大脑活动是如何产生思想和行为的。然后，我们培养应用这些知识的机会。例如，我们探索脑成像是否可以检测到注意力的缺失，并在受铁路交通监控启发的任务中防止错误发生，并使用神经成像来研究不会说话的自闭症患者潜在的隐藏认知能力。

Everything we think and do depends on our ability to pay attention, but how our brains achieve this is poorly understood. In this programme we use advanced brain imaging techniques to study the human brain in action, asking how our brains flexibly direct our neural resources to pay attention and achieve our goals. We test the proposal that the same neural system that drives our ability to pay attention to only the most important aspects of the world, also enables us to flexibly and rapidly shift our attention moment-to-moment as we move through a task or our goals change. The importance of this system can be clearly seen when it is damaged, e.g., by stroke or tumour, often with lifelong disability and corresponding healthcare burden. We develop and use advanced analytics, multi-modal neuroimaging and brain stimulation, to ask how the important parts of the world around us are encoded in this system, and how neural activity develops and changes as it passes between brain regions. In this way, we aim to address one of the most fundamental and enduring mysteries of cognitive neuroscience: how activity in the brain gives rise to thought and behaviour. Then, we cultivate opportunities to apply this knowledge. For example, we explore whether brain imaging can detect lapses of attention and prevent mistakes before they happen in tasks inspired by rail traffic monitoring, and use neuroimaging to study potentially hidden cognitive abilities in autistic individuals who do not speak.