Cortical and subcortical control of visual attention

视觉注意力的皮层和皮层下控制

• 批准号: 7317440
• 负责人: ROBERT M MCPEEK
• 金额: $ 38.9万
• 依托单位: SMITH-KETTLEWELL EYE RESEARCH INSTITUTE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-08-01 至 2012-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7317440
• 关键词: Accidents; Activities of Daily Living; Affect; Anatomy; Area; Attention; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Brain; Characteristics; Chemicals; Cognitive; Diagnosis; Discrimination; Disease; Environment; Exclusion; Eye Movements; Goals; Hand; Human; Impairment; Injury; Knowledge; Location; Measures; Monitor; Monkeys; Neural Pathways; Noise; Numbers; Pathway interactions; Perception; Performance; Personal Satisfaction; Play; Population; Positioning Attribute; Primates; Process; Rehabilitation therapy; Research; Research Personnel; Resources; Risk; Role; Saccades; Schizophrenia; Signal Transduction; Stimulus; Structure; Testing; Uncertainty; Visual; Visual Perception; Visual attention; base; cognitive function; directed attention; expectation; frontal eye fields; improved; interest; neglect; neuromechanism; oculomotor; programs; relating to nervous system; research study; response; sample fixation; superior colliculus Corpora quadrigemina; visual process; visual processing; visual stimulus

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Attention has profound effects on visual processing, allowing us to strategically select, filter, and prioritize the vast amount of information in the visual environment. The long-term goal of this project is to understand how the brain shifts attention to visual stimuli. Attention can be shifted in two modes: it can be reflexively "captured" by a salient stimulus, or voluntarily focused by top-down mechanisms on a selected object of interest. This project investigates the roles of the superior colliculus (SC) and frontal eye field (FEF) in reflexive and top-down attention shifts. The SC and FEF are traditionally considered to be areas involved in eye movements. Recent evidence indicates that these brain areas may also be important in controlling shifts of attention in the absence of overt eye movements, but their specific contributions to attention are unclear. Based on anatomy and on their roles in eye movements, we hypothesize that the SC is involved in controlling reflexive attention shifts and the FEF is involved in top-down shifts. We will test this hypothesis, first, by determining whether neural signals recorded in the SC and FEF are appropriate for controlling reflexive or top-down attention shifts. Second, we will ascertain whether these areas play necessary functional roles in attention by examining the impact of temporarily inactivating small regions of either the SC or FEF on reflexive and top-down attention shifts. Finally, attention can produce different types of improvements in visual sensitivity, and we will investigate whether these different effects of attention on perception are separately engaged by the SC and FEF. Relevance: Deficits in attention can seriously impair visual and cognitive functioning, interfere with activities of daily life, and have been associated with greater risk of accident and injury. We expect that the knowledge gained from this project will contribute to a better understanding of the causes of attentional manifestations of human disorders such as unilateral visual neglect, oculomotor apraxia, ADHD, and schizophrenia. Gaining an understanding of the basic neural mechanisms that control attention may provide new avenues for diagnosis, treatment, or rehabilitation of populations suffering from attentional disorders.

描述（由申请人提供）：注意对视觉处理有深远的影响，使我们能够在视觉环境中战略性地选择，过滤和优先考虑大量信息。该项目的长期目标是了解大脑如何将注意力转移到视觉刺激上。注意力可以以两种模式转移：可以通过明显的刺激反射地“捕获”，也可以通过自上而下的机制自愿聚焦于选定的感兴趣对象。该项目调查了上凸胶（SC）和额叶眼场（FEF）在反思性和自上而下的注意力转移中的作用。传统上，SC和FEF被认为是参与眼动的领域。最近的证据表明，在没有明显的眼动的情况下，这些大脑区域也可能在控制注意力的转移方面很重要，但是它们对注意力的具体贡献尚不清楚。基于解剖结构及其在眼动中的作用，我们假设SC参与控制反身注意力转移，而FEF参与了自上而下的转移。首先，我们将通过确定SC和FEF中记录的神经信号是否适合控制反思性或自上而下的注意力转移来检验这一假设。其次，我们将通过检查SC或FEF的小区域对反思性和自上而下的注意力转移的影响，确定这些领域是否在注意力中起必要的功能作用。最后，注意力可以在视觉敏感性中产生不同类型的改进，我们将研究注意力对感知的这些不同影响是否由SC和FEF分别参与。相关性：注意力缺陷会严重损害视觉和认知功能，干扰日常生活的活动，并且与更大的事故和伤害风险有关。我们预计，从该项目中获得的知识将有助于更好地理解人类疾病的注意事业，例如单方面视觉忽视，眼动作失调，ADHD和精神分裂症。了解控制注意力的基本神经机制可能会为患有注意力障碍的人群的诊断，治疗或康复提供新的途径。