A Dynamic Test of Attentional Multiplexing

描述（由申请人提供）：在任务或刺激之间分配有限的心理资源以及在工作记忆中的多种表征之间有效地转移注意力的“内部聚光灯”的能力对于在要求苛刻和复杂的世界中的适应性功能至关重要。人类大脑的前额叶区域与意志、认知控制和工作记忆有关，被认为对注意力复用至关重要，许多与额叶病理相关的神经和神经精神疾病通常伴随着额叶的损伤。目前对“额叶执行系统”的静态测试从传统的纸和笔神经心理学或心理测量学技术衍生出来的方法不能测试注意力多路复用的快速动态，不是设计用于重复施用，并且不容易适用于同时获取脑功能的生理测量。本项目旨在开发一种专门的、动态的、计算机化的压力测试，以克服这些限制。作为一种基本的研究工具，注意多路复用测试（AMT）可以作为一个标准化的激活程序的神经影像学研究，旨在澄清执行注意系统的神经基础。作为一项临床试验，AMT既可以帮助评估执行功能异常的患者，也可以作为改善其认知障碍的治疗措施的结果。第一阶段的工作将利用我们在执行任务时测量大脑功能和行为的经验，并建立在已在健康年轻人中测试的任务的早期原型基础上。在第一阶段，AMT将被改进以在整个生命周期中使用，重新设计以允许同时收集神经生理数据，并在一个小型实验中进行初步评估，该实验将测试其稳定性，可靠性，对额叶功能障碍的敏感性和神经相关性。在第二阶段，更大的研究将评估其结构和判别效度，并进一步表征其性能的神经生理学和神经解剖学相关性。然后将其提供给合作实验室进行独立评估。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ability to distribute limited mental resources among tasks or stimuli and to efficiently shift the "internal spotlight" of attention among multiple representations in working memory is critical to adaptive functioning in a demanding and complicated world. The prefrontal regions of the human brain that have been implicated in volition, cognitive control, and working memory are thought to be critical to attentional multiplexing, and many neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions that are associated with frontal pathology are often accompanied by impairments in it. Current static tests of the "frontal executive system" derived from traditional paper and pencil neuropsychological or psychometric techniques do not test the rapid dynamics of attentional multiplexing, are not designed for repeated administration, and are not easily adapted for concurrent acquisition of physiological measurements of brain function. This project aims to develop a specialized, dynamic, computerized stress test that will overcome these limitations. As a basic research tool the Attentional Multiplexing Test (AMT) could serve as a standardized activation procedure for neuroimaging studies aimed at clarifying the neural basis of the executive attention system. As a clinical test the AMT could both aid in the assessment of patients with executive function abnormalities, and serve as an outcome measure in treatment efforts to ameliorate their cognitive impairments. The Phase I effort will leverage our experience with measuring brain function and behavior during tasks that stress executive functions, and builds on an early prototype of the task that has been tested in healthy young adults. In Phase I the AMT will be refined for use across the lifespan, re-engineered to permit simultaneous neurophysiological data collection, and initially evaluated in a small experiment that will test its stability, reliability, sensitivity to frontal lobe dysfunction, and neural correlates. In Phase II larger studies would evaluate its construct and discriminant validity, and further characterize the neurophysiological and neuroanatomical correlates of its performance. It would then be provided to collaborating laboratories for independent evaluation.