Shifting auditory spatial attention: cognitive and neural mechanisms

 描述（由申请人提供）：听觉可以作为一个早期预警系统，因为它可以在视觉上监测环境中发生的事件在远处或看不见。这些生态学上的考虑使得听觉系统对于研究空间注意力转移的机制特别有用。这个项目的重点是自上而下和自下而上的空间注意力偏差之间的相互作用，在一个简单的空间注意力任务的性能控制转移听觉注意力的干扰。这项建议的总体目标是使用跨学科的方法，以更好地了解在认知和神经层面的分析听觉注意力是如何分布在空间。我们将检验这一假设，即听觉注意的空间分布出现两个基本因素之间的相互作用。第一个因素是一种自愿的（自上而下的）注意力偏差，这种偏差随着与当前注意力焦点的距离而减弱。相反，第二个因素是一种自动（自下而上）的偏见，它被调整为将注意力从当前的注意力焦点转移到意外事件上。第一个目标是测试一个自上而下和自下而上的注意偏向的计算模型，在转移听觉空间注意。模型的不同方面将根据行为实验的结果进行定量测试，观察结果将用于进一步开发模型。计算模型将结合人工智能方法来代表人类的认知过程。第二个目的是使用经颅磁刺激来测试关键的右半球皮层区域在听觉空间注意转移中的作用。我们专注于自下而上的注意偏向的神经机制。第三个目标测试听觉注意力梯度是否随着时间的推移变得不那么集中。这将确定梯度如何与认知资源和神经血流测量相关，这些测量已知会随着延长的警惕性而下降。该项目将有助于推进听觉注意力和认知听力领域的知识，并解决注意力研究中的一般问题，如自上而下和自下而上的过程，警惕性及其与神经生物学注意力网络的关系。结果将具有实际意义，因为转移听觉注意力对于在11岁时避免事故、在老年时保持独立生活至关重要，并且适用于具有注意力障碍的神经和精神障碍（例如，PTSD、注意力缺陷障碍、精神分裂症、中风、痴呆）。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Hearing can serve as an early warning system because it can panoramically monitor the environment for events happening at a distance or out of sight. These ecological considerations make the auditory system particularly useful for studying mechanisms for shifting spatial attention. The focus of this project is on the interplay between top-down and bottom-up spatial attention biases that govern shifting auditory attention to distractors during performance of a simple spatial attention task. The overall goal of this proposal is to use an interdisciplinary approach to better understand at the cognitive and neural levels of analysis how auditory attention is distributed over space. We will test the hypothesis that the spatial distribution of auditory attentional emerges from interactions among two basic factors. The first factor is a voluntary (top-down) attention bias that weakens with distance from the current focus of attention. Conversely, the second factor is an automatic (bottom-up) bias that is tuned to shift attention to unexpected events away from the current focus of attention. The first aim tests a computational model of top-down and bottom-up attention bias in shifting auditory spatial attention. Different aspects of the model will be quantitatively tested against findings from behavioral experiments, and observations will be used to further develop the model. The computational model will incorporate artificial intelligence methods to represent human cognitive processes. The second aim uses transcranial magnetic stimulation to test the role of key right hemisphere cortical areas in shifting of auditory spatial attention. We focus on neural mechanisms of bottom-up attentional bias. The third aim tests whether auditory attention gradients become less focused over time. This will determine how gradients relate to cognitive resources and neural blood flow measures that are known to decline with extended vigilance. This project will help advance knowledge in the field of auditory attention and cognitive hearing, and also addresses general issues in attention research such as top-down and bottom-up processes, vigilance, and their relations to neurobiological attention networks. Outcomes will have practical significance because shifting auditory attention is vital for avoiding accidents at ll ages, maintaining independent living at older ages, and is applicable to neurological and psychiatric disorders having attentional impairments (e.g. PTSD, attention deficit disorder, schizophrenia, stroke, dementia).