CRCNS-Attentional Selection and Perceptual Organization

描述(申请人提供)：视觉感知的一个重要方面是图形-背景分离。因为眼睛只记录3D世界的2D图像，所以视觉系统需要检测物体的轮廓，并将它们正确地分配到物体一侧，而不是背景一侧。我们最近的研究表明，“边界所有权”的分配发生在大脑皮层V2区。在迄今为止的另一项工作中，我们研究了选择性注意，这是神经系统在任何时候选择最相关信息的机制。我们发现注意状态与神经反应的时间结构之间存在很强的相关性，即。神经刺激串之间的同步性。在拟议的工作中，我们建议注意可以被视为一种在中间视觉和知觉组织水平上工作的机制。具体地说，我们提出，被观察到的产生边界所有权编码信号的神经底物也可能为注意选择提供‘句柄’。然后，选择性注意的中央过程可能依赖于该区域提供的视觉数据结构。我们的初步结果表明，注意控制可以通过使用与我们以前的工作中看到的类似的同步结构来实施。我们将通过计算模型和记录清醒的猴子的行为来研究这一假设。这一假设产生了明确的预测，其中一些已在初步研究中得到证实，另一些将在拟议的工作中进行测试。 了解选择性注意和知觉组织之间的相互作用将有助于理解视觉过程，特别是神经信息处理的一般原理。除了理论上的兴趣，从临床应用的角度来看，了解视觉皮质的功能也是一个重要的目标，因为大脑的大部分都致力于视觉处理，而且许多神经系统疾病都伴随着中枢性视觉障碍。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): An important aspect of visual perception is figure-ground segregation. Because the eyes register only 2D images of a 3D world, the visual system needs to detect the contours of objects and assign them correctly to the object side, rather than to the background side. Our recent studies indicate that the assignment of "border ownership" occurs in cortical area V2. In a so-far separate line of work, we have studied selective attention, which is the mechanism by which the nervous system selects the most relevant information at any time. We have found a strong correlation between the attentional state and the temporal structure of neural responses, viz. synchrony between neural spike trains. In the proposed work, we suggest that attention may be viewed as a mechanism that works at a level of intermediate vision and perceptual organization. Specifically, we propose that the neural substrate that is observed to generate the border ownership coding signals may also provide 'handles' for attentional selection. Central processes of selective attention may then rely on the visual data structure provided by this area. Our preliminary results indicate that attentional control may be exerted by employing synchrony structures akin to those seen in our previous work. We will study this hypothesis both by computational modeling and by recording in awake behaving monkeys. The hypothesis generates clear predictions, of which some have been confirmed in preliminary studies and others are to be tested in the proposed work. Understanding the interplay between selective attention and perceptual organization will contribute significantly to understanding the vision process in particular, and the principles of neural information processing in general. Beyond the theoretical interest, understanding the function of the visual cortex is an important goal in view of clinical applications because large parts of the brain are devoted to visual processing, and many neurological diseases are accompanied by central visual disorders.