Investigating the independent effects of endogenous and exogenous attention on the capacity of audiovisual integration

在我们的生活中，我们不断地被我们的感官系统处理的信息所影响。虽然这些输入最初是分开处理的（例如，通过我们的眼睛和耳朵），但它们也会在我们大脑的不同阶段相互作用，从而对这些感官输入是否来自同一来源做出隐含的决定。为了做到这一点，我们的大脑使用了许多线索，比如信息是否来自空间中的同一位置，我们是否同时感觉到它，以及我们所看到和听到的信息是否匹配。虽然这个过程在我们的日常生活中不断地自动发生，但它也会受到相关刺激前不久发生的信息的影响。这个过程被称为注意提示，已经在视觉和听觉模式中进行了广泛的研究，但之前还没有在视听整合能力的背景下进行过研究。该提案描述了将在新不伦瑞克圣约翰大学MMP实验室进行的研究计划，以检查这些现象。该计划的初始目标将包括对听觉、视觉和视听条件下的外源性线索（那些在当下吸引个体注意力的线索）和内源性线索（那些引导个体转移注意力的线索）的调查。第一个目标下的实验将着眼于这些不同的提示条件如何影响个体将多个视觉刺激与声音整合在一起的能力。我们将招募两名研究生来完成这项调查，这将为他们提供心理物理测试方法的培训机会，并有机会在会议上写作和发言。一旦第一个目标实现，第三个研究生将参与第二个项目，致力于创建一个注意力提示测试，包括听觉、视觉和视听线索和目标。这建立在任务的早期版本之上，并扩展了以不同模式表示的信息的已知内容。除了扩展我们对模式和注意提示的理解之外，这个研究项目将进一步了解注意缺陷障碍背后的现象学。先前的研究在这方面并不总是一致的，一些研究表明，注意力障碍患者的注意力能力是特异性和选择性地降低的，而其他研究表明，受影响的个体和未受影响的个体之间的差异实际上是在感觉加工水平上。通过降低处理难度（通过增加可用的感官线索的数量），我们将能够确定个人的注意力缺陷是真正的注意力缺陷，还是感官问题。

In our lives, we are constantly affected by information being processed by our sensory systems. While these inputs are initially processed separately (e.g. by our eyes and by our ears), they also interact at various stages in our brain, which makes the implicit decision about whether those sensory inputs came from the same source or not. To do this, our brain uses numerous cues, such as whether the information came from the same location in space, whether we sensed it at the same time, and whether the information seems to match between what we saw and what we heard. While this process occurs constantly and automatically through most of our daily existence, it can also be affected by information that occurs shortly before the stimuli in question. This process, known as attentional cueing, has been studied extensively in the visual and auditory modalities, but has not previously been studied in the context of audiovisual integration capacity. This proposal describes a program of research that will be conducted in the MMP Lab at the University of New Brunswick Saint John to examine these phenomena. The initial objective of the program will involve an investigation into exogenous cues (those which draw an individual's attention in the moment) and endogenous cues (those which direct an individual to shift their attention) in auditory, visual, and audiovisual conditions. The experiments under this first objective will look at how these different cueing conditions affect an individual's ability to integrate more than one visual stimulus with a sound. Two graduate students will be recruited in order to complete this investigation, which will provide them with an opportunity for training on psychophysical testing methodologies, and the opportunity to write and present at conferences. Once this first objective has been achieved, a third graduate student will be involved in a second project, working on creation of an attentional cueing test that involves auditory, visual, and audiovisual cues and targets. This builds on earlier versions of the task, and extends what is known about information presented in differing modalities. In addition to extending our understanding of modalities and attentional cueing, this research program will further knowledge about the phenomenology behind attention deficit disorders. Previous research has not always been in agreement in this regard, with some studies showing that attentional abilities are specifically and selectively reduced in individuals with attention disorders, while other studies suggest that the differences between affected individuals and non-affected individuals is actually at the sensory processing level. By reducing processing difficulty (through increasing the number of sensory cues available), we will be able to ascertain whether individuals' attention deficits are truly attentional, or whether they are sensory issues.