Spatiotemporal Brain Imaging of Human Auditory Cognition

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究计划的总体目标是利用先进的时空脑成像方法，结合fMRI， MEG和EEG，建立对人类听觉处理的全面理论认识。在第一个资助周期中，我们利用时空成像研究了特征特异性神经元的瞬时适应在听觉感觉记忆和注意前声音新颖性检测中的作用。我们将继续研究这些早期听觉处理的机制，以解释大脑如何代表时间分布的声音信号（目的1）。此外，我们的新视角将研究范围从这些较低水平的机制扩展到来自声外影响的动态调节，包括自上而下的选择性注意调节（Aim 2）和多感觉输入（Aim 3），它们在基于当前行为背景的适应性重塑神经元活动中起着重要作用。此外，我们将继续开发新的实验范式和时空脑成像方法，以实现更准确和敏感的非侵入性工具来研究人类听觉系统的功能组织。这一建议的主要意义在于，它提出的工作将更好地理解人脑中负责听觉处理的神经机制：尽管一系列成功的动物研究已经导致了几个相互竞争的假设的发展，但关于生理机制的信息仍然缺乏，这些机制使我们能够掌握嵌入在我们日常声学环境中的大量信息。我们提出的人类大脑活动的综合光谱和空间分析将揭示参与听觉处理的大脑区域的集合以及它们因果相互作用的顺序。听觉皮层结构/功能关系的经验信息可以纳入人类听觉加工的计算模型。此外，我们的时空脑成像技术可能为听觉感知功能异常的临床疾病的研究提供显著的优势。本研究计划使用先进的脑成像方法组合来研究人类大脑如何处理听觉信息。除了提供有关听觉记忆、选择性注意和视觉对言语感知的影响的神经机制的信息外，我们的技术还可以在研究各种听觉感知功能异常的疾病（如精神分裂症）方面提供显著的优势。我们的科学成果也可能有助于开发语音检测算法以及助听器和假肢技术。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall goal of our research program is to build a comprehensive theoretical understanding of human auditory processing by utilizing advanced spatiotemporal brain imaging methods combining fMRI, MEG, and EEG. During the first funding cycle, we used spatiotemporal imaging to investigate the role of transient adaptation of feature-specific neurons in auditory sensory memory and pre-attentive sound novelty detection. We will continue to investigate these mechanisms of early auditory processing to explain how the brain represents temporally distributed sound signals (Aim 1). Furthermore, our new perspective expands the scope of the investigation from these lower-level mechanisms to dynamic modulations from extra-acoustic influences including top-down modulation of selective attention (Aim 2) and multisensory inputs (Aim 3), which play important roles in adaptively re-shaping neuronal activity based on the current behavioral context. In addition, we will continue to develop novel experimental paradigms and spatiotemporal brain imaging methods, to achieve more accurate and sensitive non-invasive tools for investigating the functional organization of the human auditory system. The major significance of this proposal is that the work it proposes will provide a better understanding of the neural mechanisms responsible of auditory processing in the human brain: Although a series of successful animal studies have led to the development of several competing hypotheses, a paucity of information exists about the physiological mechanisms that allow us to grasp the vast amount of information embedded within our everyday acoustic environment. Our proposed comprehensive spectral and spatial analysis of human brain activity will reveal the collection of brain regions involved in auditory processing as well as the sequence of their causal interactions. The empirical information on structure/function relationship in auditory cortex can be incorporated into computational models of human auditory processing. Furthermore, our spatiotemporal brain imaging techniques may provide significant advantages in the investigation of clinical disorders with abnormal auditory perceptual functions. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE This research program uses an advanced combination of brain imaging methods to investigate how the human brain processes auditory information. In addition to providing information on neuronal mechanisms on auditory sensory memory, selective attention, and visual influence on speech perception, our techniques may provide significant advantages in the investigation of a variety disorders with abnormal auditory perceptual functions, such as schizophrenia. Our scientific results may also help develop speech-detection algorithms as well as techniques for hearing aids and prosthetics.