SELECTIVE ATTENTION AT EARLY STAGES OF VISUAL PROCESSING

视觉处理早期阶段的选择性注意

• 批准号: 6756415
• 负责人: Jose Manuel Alonso
• 金额: $ 17.9万
• 依托单位: STATE COLLEGE OF OPTOMETRY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-06-06 至 2006-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6756415
• 关键词: Macaca mulatta; attention; behavioral /social science research tag; electrodes; electrophysiology; eye movements; lateral geniculate body; neural information processing; stimulus /response; vision tests; visual cortex; visual feedback; visual fields; visual perception; visual stimulus; visual tracking

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In the last 30 years, there has been an enormous progress in understanding the brain circuits involved in selective visual attention. Some current models propose that the 'attention signal' originates in high cortical areas (e.g. frontal and parietal cortex) and then is transferred in a top-down fashion to earlier stages in visual processing. This model is consistent with the existence of a rich anatomical network of feedback connections that go from higher to lower stages in the visual pathway. However, feedback connections reach stages as low in processing as the primary visual cortex (V-1 ) and the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN). Therefore, attention could potentially modulate perception by acting at the initial stages of the visual pathway. Consistent with this hypothesis, increasing evidence indicates that selective visual attention modulates the activity of V-1 and one recent anatomical study found the first evidence for attentional modulations in LGN. An important characteristic of selective visual attention is its retinotopic specificity the focus of attention can be restricted to very small regions of visual space. A remarkable specificity has been demonstrated in several cortical areas including V-1 but not in LGN. The demonstration that visual attention can modulate LGN activity is missing therefore an important piece of evidence. It is not known how retinotopically selective LGN modulations can be. In this proposal, the retinotopic specificity of LGN attentional modulations will be measured by simultaneously recording from multiple geniculate neurons while an animal performs a task that requires selective visual attention. In addition, it will be investigated whether LGN modulations are reliably transferred to V-1 by doing simultaneous recordings from LGN and V-1 cells with receptive fields aligned in visual space. A precise knowledge of the circuits involved in selective visual attention is important to understand how the brain processes visual information. The study of this circuitry will eventually lead to the prevention and treatment of serious attentional deficits that are common in many psychiatric and neurological disorders.

描述（由申请人提供）：在过去的30年中，在理解选择性视觉关注的大脑电路方面取得了巨大进展。一些当前的模型建议“注意信号”起源于高皮质区域（例如额叶和顶叶皮层），然后以自上而下的方式转移到视觉处理中的早期阶段。 该模型与有丰富的反馈连接的解剖网络相一致，这些网络从视觉途径中的较高阶段到较低的阶段。 然而，反馈连接的处理阶段与一级视觉皮层（V-1）和侧向基因核（LGN）一样低。 因此，注意力可以通过在视觉途径的初始阶段作用来潜在地调节感知。 与这一假设一致，越来越多的证据表明，选择性视觉注意力调节V-1的活性和一项最近的解剖学研究发现了LGN注意调制的第一个证据。 选择性视觉关注的一个重要特征是其视网膜特异性，注意力的重点可能仅限于非常小的视觉空间区域。在包括V-1在内的几个皮质区域但在LGN中没有证明了一个显着的特异性。 因此，视觉注意力可以调节LGN活性的证明，因此是一个重要的证据。 尚不清楚视网膜选择性LGN调制如何。 在此提案中，LGN注意调制的视网膜特异性将通过同时记录来自多个基因神经元的同时记录，而动物执行需要选择性视觉关注的任务。 此外，将通过从LGN和V-1细胞的同时记录与视觉空间中对齐的接收场同时记录来可靠地转移LGN调制。 对选择性视觉关注的电路的精确知识对于了解大脑如何处理视觉信息很重要。该电路的研究最终将导致预防和治疗严重的注意力缺陷，这些缺陷在许多精神病和神经系统疾病中很常见。