Cognitive neuroscience of attention and sensory working memory.

我的研究项目旨在了解注意力、工作记忆和认知控制的基本机制的功能和神经元特征。 拟议的实验建立在过去成功使用EEG，MEG（具有高时间分辨率的方法）的基础上，并指导旨在理解电磁振荡脑活动所反映的认知功能的新研究。新的措施，动态变化的相位振幅耦合和跨区域间的试验相位同步，将开发和使用在振荡脑活动的分析。 然而，相位同步本身并不能提供大脑部位之间相互作用的方向或性质方面的信息。 最近的工作基于格兰杰因果关系的承诺，以消除歧义的信息流之间的节点识别网络的方向。 我建议使用这种方法来理解空间选择中网络通信的动态和信息编码到视觉工作记忆中。具体的实验将检查选择空间与N2 pc事件相关的偏侧化，和N2 pb双边后方注意反应。 视觉工作/短期记忆将通过SPCN（持续后对侧负性）进行索引。 一些实验将检查干扰物积极性（Pd），以反映干扰物抑制。**目标-干扰物的相互作用也将在注意瞬脱（AB）范式中进行研究，重点是测量格兰杰因果关系中的相位同步性和不对称性，但注意停留方法不会引起强烈的稳态诱发反应，从而难以区分“自然”振荡与刺激驱动的振荡（以前的工作中的问题）。 AB研究将通过包括有或没有任务切换的条件来扩展，提供有关底层网络节点的认知控制的信息。基于标准信号平均方法（N2 pc，N2 pb，SPCN，P3）的分析保证了短期的成功，而对振荡活动的复杂分析则有望将该领域推向对介导大脑活动的新水平。这项研究将由认知神经科学的本科生和研究生，博士后研究员进行，因此将有助于HQP在NSE研究的一个令人兴奋和不断扩大的领域的培训。

My resarch program seeks to understand functional and neuronal characteristics of basic mechanisms of attention, working memory, and cognitive control. Proposed experiments build on past successes in the use of EEG, MEG (methods with high temporal resolution), and guide new studies designed to understand cognitive funtions reflected by electromagnetic oscillatory brain activity.******New measures of dynamic changes in phase-amplitude coupling and inter-regional inter-trial phase synchrony, will be developed and used in the analysis of oscillatory brain activity. However, phase synchrony alone is not informative in terms of the direction or nature of interaction among brain sites. Recent work based on on Granger causality holds promise to disambiguate the direction of information flow among nodes of identified networks. I propose to use this approach to understand the dynamics of network communcation in spatial selection and the encoding of information into visual working memory.******Specific experiments will examine selection in space with the N2pc event-related lateralization, and the N2pb bilateral posterior attention response. Visual working/short-term memory will be indexed by the SPCN (sustained posterior contralateral negativity). Some experiments will examine the distractor positivity (Pd) posited to reflect distractor suppression.******Target-distractor interactions will also be examined in the attentional blink (AB) paradigm, with a focus on measures of phase synchrony and asymmetries in Granger causality, but with the attentional dwell approach, which does not induce strong steady-state evoked responses that make it difficult to distinguish between 'natural' oscillations from stimulus-driven oscillations (a problem in previous work). AB studies will be extended by including conditions with or without task switching, providing information concerning cognitive control of underlying network nodes.******Analyses based on standard signal-averaging methods (N2pc, N2pb, SPCN, P3), guarantee short-term successes, while sophisticated analyses of oscillatory activity promise to advance the field to a new level of understanding of mediating brain activity.******The research will be carried by undergraduate and graduate students studing in cognitive neuroscience, postdoctoral fellows, and thus will contribute the training of HQP in an exciting and expanding area of NSE research.