EXECUTIVE PROCESSES--BEHAVIORIAL & NEUROIMAGING STUDIES

描述：执行过程在认知中起着核心作用。虽然 执行过程很难定义，人们普遍认为， 它们是元进程，包括：（a）注意 任务相关的过程和不相关的过程或反应的抑制， (b)任务管理，包括在两个或多个已知任务之间切换， 并以正确的时间或逻辑顺序规划子任务，以满足 总体目标，（c）关于事件的上下文源信息的编码，以及 (d)监视一个人的行为的当前状态。也有一般 同意这些执行过程在很大程度上是由 前额叶皮层的机制，前额叶皮层的一部分， 运动区域当病人的这些前额叶机制受损时， 他们的执行过程受到极大的影响。 拟议的研究计划利用行为和功能磁共振成像研究的 这些执行过程中的前两个，注意力/抑制， 任务管理研究集中在这两个，因为它们是核心 因为它们都依赖于 选择性注意该研究有三个主要目标：第一， 以确定这两者之间是否存在共性和差异 行为和神经信号中的执行过程。第二个目标是 详细研究了抑制的执行过程。为此，我们建议 研究应该确定：（a）大脑回路参与了什么 注意力和抑制控制，（B）如何外显行为和潜在的 神经回路因不同种类的抑制而不同，（c）是否 明显的行为和潜在的电路取决于材料的含量 （d）是否存在系统性的个体差异， 行为上和神经回路中的抑制。第三 目的是通过对任务转换的研究， 任务管理的重要组成部分。服务于社会主义市场经济的实证研究 这个目标将试图确定：（a）涉及的基本电路，（B）变化 在行为和电路的变化，在什么必须切换，（c）变化 在行为和底层电路与内容是什么交换， (d)任务转换是否存在系统的个体差异， 与神经差异有关。除了实验性工作之外， 该研究继续为这些高管开发计算模型， 从经验结果中得出的过程。额叶患者 将研究在一个或另一个执行过程上有缺陷的病变。

DESCRIPTION: Executive processes play a central role in cognition. Although executive processes are difficult to define, there is general agreement that they are metaprocesses and that they include the following: (a) attention to task-relevant processes and inhibition of irrelevant processes or responses, (b) task-management, which includes switching among two or more known tasks, and planning subtasks in the correct temporal or logical order to satisfy an overall goal, (c) coding of contextual source information about an event, and (d) monitoring the current state of one's actions. There is also general agreement that these executive processes are mediated in large part by mechanisms of the prefrontal cortex, that portion of frontal cortex anterior to the motor regions. When patients have damage to these prefrontal mechanisms, their executive processes suffer dramatically. The proposed research program makes use of behavioral and fMRI studies of the first two of these executive processes, attention/inhibition and task-management. The research focuses on these two because they are at the core of discussion of executive processes and because they share a reliance on selective attention. The proposed research has three major aims: The first is to determine whether there are commonalities and differences between these two executive processes in behavioral and neural signatures. The second goal is to study the executive process of inhibition in detail. For this goal, we propose studies that should determine: (a) what brain circuitry is involved in attentional and inhibitory control, (b) how overt behavior and underlying neural circuitry differ for different sorts of inhibition, (c) whether the overt behavior and underlying circuitry depend on the content of the materials involved, and (d) whether there are systematic individual difference in inhibition both behaviorally and in the neural circuits involved. The third goal is to study task-management in detail by studying task-switching, an important component of task-management. The empirical studies in service of this goal will try to determine: (a) the basic circuitry involved, (b) changes in behavior and circuitry with changes in what has to be switched, (c) changes in behavior and underlying circuitry with the content of what is switched, and (d) whether there are systematic individual differences in task-switching that are correlated with neural differences. In addition to the experimental work, the research continues to develop a computational model for these executive processes that derives from the empirical results. Patients with frontal lesions who have deficits on one or another executive process will be studied.