CAREER: Understanding the Relationship of Covert and Overt Attention Using Concurrent EEG and Eye Tracking

职业：使用并发脑电图和眼动追踪了解隐性注意力和显性注意力的关系

• 批准号: 2345898
• 负责人: Nicholas Gaspelin
• 金额: $ 70.88万
• 依托单位: University of Missouri-Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-07-01 至 2026-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2345898&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Understanding; Relationship; Covert; Overt

In humans, visual search is crucial for everyday goal-directed behavior. Whether scanning the road for hazards while driving or looking for a can of soup in a grocery store, people constantly search through complex visual environments to locate objects of interest. Despite its importance, many basic questions about the brain processes involved in visual search remain unanswered. One such question is how eye movements are controlled by the brain during visual search. Humans generate rapid, ballistic eye movements called saccades which are used to focus attention on important objects. These eye movements occur about 2-3 times per second and are generated approximately 100,000 times per day. However, scientists are only beginning to understand how these saccadic eye movements are controlled by different brain areas. The current project aims to bridge this gap in knowledge by developing a new technique to simultaneously measure eye movements (via infrared eye tracking) and neural activity (via electroencephalography; EEG). Combining these two types of data will allow us to directly examine attentional processes in the brain that occur just before eye movements are generated. This project will lead to a better understanding of the basic neuroscience underlying eye movements. The knowledge gained from this project will also help provide key insights about visual search in applied settings such as radiological screening, transportation baggage security, and motor vehicle traffic control.This project will explore how the brain controls eye movements to search through complex images. Prior research has identified two mechanisms of visual attention in humans. First, saccadic eye movements are used to rapidly fixate objects of interest. These ballistic eye movements occur many times per second and can be directly monitored using infrared eye-tracking cameras. Second, humans can also covertly attend objects without moving the eyes. That is, people can monitor an object “out of the corner of their eye” without directly looking at the object. Interestingly, previous research has developed techniques to directly measure covert attention using EEG to noninvasively monitor neural activity from visual cortex in the brain. However, a major shortcoming of this past research is that it used search tasks that prohibited eye movements because they result in noisy voltage fluctuations that make EEG waveforms impossible to interpret. As a result, little is known about how the brain uses covert attention to coordinate eye movements during everyday visual search. The current project aims to resolve this by developing a new technique to measure brain activity that occurs just before eye movement are generated. The PI will measure shifts of covert attention (via EEG) and eye movements (via infrared eye tracking) concurrently. During analysis, the PI will then examine the EEG waveform during the period of time prior to the eye movement for markers of covert attentional selection. Specifically, the PI will assess whether the N2pc component—a gold-standard EEG measurement of attentional orienting—occurs just before eye movements are generated to a visual stimulus. Additionally, this project will involve a virtual workshop to train promising young researchers approaches computer programming in cognitive neuroscience. The ultimate goals of this project are to understand how covert attentional systems in the brain are used to guide eye movements during visual search and to develop better cognitive neuroscience models of visual attention in humans.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

对于人类来说，视觉搜索对于日常目标导向行为至关重要，无论是开车时扫描道路寻找危险还是在杂货店寻找一罐汤，人们都会不断地在复杂的视觉环境中搜索以找到感兴趣的物体。关于视觉搜索中涉及的大脑过程的许多基本问题仍然没有得到解答，其中一个问题是人类在视觉搜索过程中如何产生快速的眼球运动，这种运动被称为眼跳，用于将注意力集中在重要的物体上。这些眼球运动大约发生在每秒 2-3 次，每天生成约 100,000 次。然而，科学家们才刚刚开始了解这些眼球运动是如何由不同的大脑区域控制的，当前的项目旨在通过开发一种新技术来弥补这一知识差距。同时测量眼球运动（通过红外眼动追踪）和神经活动（通过脑电图；脑电图），使我们能够直接检查在眼球运动产生之前发生的大脑注意力过程。该项目将有助于更好地理解眼球运动的基础神经科学，从该项目中获得的知识也将有助于提供有关放射筛查、运输行李安全和机动车辆交通控制等应用环境中视觉搜索的关键见解。该项目将探索大脑如何控制眼球运动来搜索复杂的图像。 先前的研究已经确定了人类视觉注意力的两种机制，首先，眼球快速运动用于快速注视感兴趣的物体。并且可以使用直接监控其次，人类也可以在不移动眼睛的情况下隐蔽地观察物体，也就是说，人们可以“用眼角余光”监视物体，而无需直接观察物体，从而利用脑电图直接测量隐蔽注意力。然而，过去研究的一个主要缺点是它使用了禁止眼球运动的搜索任务，因为它们会导致嘈杂的电压波动，使脑电图波形无法被检测到。因此，人们对大脑在日常视觉搜索过程中如何利用隐性注意力来协调眼球运动知之甚少，当前的项目旨在通过开发一种新技术来测量眼球运动产生之前发生的大脑活动来解决这个问题。 PI 将同时测量隐性注意力（通过脑电图）和眼球运动（通过红外眼动追踪）的变化。在分析过程中，PI 将检查眼球运动之前一段时间内的脑电图波形，以寻找隐性注意力选择的标记。具体来说，PI将评估 N2pc 成分（注意力定向的黄金标准脑电图测量）是否发生在视觉刺激产生眼球运动之前。此外，该项目还将举办虚拟研讨会，以培训有前途的年轻研究人员在认知神经科学中进行计算机编程。该项目的最终目标是了解大脑中反映的隐蔽注意力系统如何用于在视觉搜索过程中引导眼球运动，并开发更好的人类视觉注意力认知神经科学模型。该奖项是 NSF 的法定使命，并被认为是值得的通过评估提供支持利用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准。