Autonomic and central nervous system correlates of cognitive control training for attentional disorders

这个项目将研究人类如何整合感官信号和对环境的期望。人们很早就知道，人类的感知是一个过程，在这个过程中，必须根据模糊的感觉信号来推断世界的真实状态。预测编码和贝叶斯假设等理论框架已经为如何实现这一目标提供了理论解释。我们将结合电生理记录和对健康人类志愿者和精神分裂症患者的认知实验来研究这一点。此外，为了探索神经递质系统在前馈感觉信号与通过概率预期反馈控制感觉系统中的作用，应将药理学挑战与这些方法结合起来。除了这项经验性的工作，目的是通过人类认知和大脑活动的生成性模型来对行为和神经元数据进行建模。学生将接受这些技术中的任何一种(脑成像数据分析、实验心理学/心理物理学、数据的计算建模)的培训，并将与患者打交道--重点取决于学生的背景和具体兴趣。这项研究将在诺丁汉大学以及其他国家和国际机构的合作范围内进行。

This project will investigate how humans integrate sensory signals and expectations about the environment. It has long been known that human perception is a process during which the true state of the world has to be inferred based on ambiguous sensory signals. Theoretical frameworks such as Predictive coding and the Bayesian hypothesis have provided theoretical explanations how this may be achieved. We will study this using a combination of electrophysiological recordings and cognitive experiments in healthy human volunteers and schizophrenic patients. In addition, to probe the role of neurotransmitter systems in feedforwarding sensory signals vs feedback control of sensory systems by probabilistic expectations, pharmacological challenges shall be combined with these approaches. Besides this empirical work, the aim is to model both the behavioural and the neuronal data by generative models of human cognition and human brain activity. The student will be trained in any of these techniques (analysis of brain imaging data, experimental psychology/psychophysics, computational modelling of data) and will be working with patients - the emphasis depending on the student's background and specific interests. This research will be conducted in the context of collaborations both within the University of Nottingham as well as other national and international institutions.