Effects of Attention in the Human Visual Cortex

描述(由申请人提供)：视觉注意是选择进入的视觉信息的子集进行进一步处理的过程。注意力通常被分配到空间中的特定位置(空间注意)，或分配到该位置的特定特征，如颜色或运动(基于特征的注意)，或两者的某种组合。虽然研究往往集中在大脑如何增强或修改视觉刺激在注意的空间焦点内的表征，但最近的电生理学和神经成像证据表明，如果注意力与被注意的刺激具有共同特征，那么注意力也可以影响神经元对被忽视的视觉刺激的反应。此外，初步研究表明，对听觉刺激的关注也会对大脑对被忽视的视觉刺激的反应产生不同的影响。因此，大脑对无人看管信息的处理在很大程度上依赖于其他地方正在处理的信息。这项拟议的研究的目标是结合使用功能磁共振成像和行为方法来更好地了解大脑对无人值守刺激的表征如何依赖于其他地方所关注的位置、特征和方式。这项拟议研究的发现可能会对我们对注意力障碍的理解产生重大影响，例如自闭症和ADHD，这些障碍可能涉及到忽视分散注意力的感觉信息的能力的中断。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Visual attention is the process of selecting a subset of incoming visual information for further processing. Attention is normally allocated either to a particular location in space (spatial attention), or to a specific feature, such as color or motion, at that location (feature-based attention), or to some combination of the two. While research has tended to focus on how the brain enhances or modifies the representation of visual stimuli within the spatial focus of attention, recent electrophysiological and neuroimaging evidence shows that attention can also affect the neuronal response to an ignored visual stimulus, if it shares common features with an attended stimulus. Also, preliminary studies show that attention to an auditory stimulus can also have a different effect on the brain's response to an ignored visual stimulus. The brain's processing of unattended information therefore depends strongly on what is being attended elsewhere. The goal of the proposed research is to use a combination of functional MRI and behavioral methods to obtain a better understanding of how the brain's representation of unattended stimuli depends on the location, feature, and modality attended to elsewhere. Findings from the proposed research could have significant impact on our understanding of attentional disorders, such as autism and ADHD, which may involve a disruption in the ability to ignore distracting sensory information.