Cortical and thalamic mechanisms of selective auditory attention

选择性听觉注意的皮质和丘脑机制

• 批准号: 8765619
• 负责人: Peter Lakatos
• 金额: $ 39.9万
• 依托单位: NATHAN S. KLINE INSTITUTE FOR PSYCH RES
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-12-10 至 2015-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8765619
• 关键词: Acoustics; Adaptive Behaviors; Area; Attention; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Auditory; Auditory area; Auditory system; Autistic Disorder; Automobile Driving; Brain; Cell Nucleus; Communication; Dimensions; Disease; Event; Frequencies; Goals; Health; Hearing; Impaired cognition; Macaca; Modeling; Monkeys; Network-based; Neurons; Phase; Physiological; Play; Population; Process; Property; Relative (related person); Research; Role; Route; Schizophrenia; Sensory; Staging; Stimulus; Stream; Structure; Symptoms; Synapses; Techniques; Testing; Thalamic structure; Time; auditory stimulus; base; electrical microstimulation; improved; instrument; multi-electrode arrays; neglect; neuronal excitability; neuropsychiatry; physical property; response; selective attention; stimulus processing; transmission process; visual process; visual processing

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The brain must filter the overwhelming influx of sensory information to select information that is relevant to its current goals, in order to appropriately guide adaptive behavior. While studies in macaque monkeys have identified many of the mechanisms underlying attention effects on visual processing, very few studies have examined corresponding effects in the auditory system. Recent findings raise our overarching hypothesis that attention enhances the sensory representation of attended stimuli at the expense of ignored ones both by modulating local excitability within, and the dynamic routing of information across distinct functional areas in the brain. The broad goal of the proposed research is to examine this hypothesis and thus define the mechanisms of these interrelated local and network based processes, as well as their relative contributions to attentive auditory stimulus processing in different nodes of the auditory processing hierarchy. According to our hypothesis, attention modulates ongoing oscillatory activity to match its properties (frequency and phase) to the global acoustic features of the attended stimulus stream (temporal structure and pitch respectively), thereby creating an internal model of that stream in the form of subthreshold neuronal oscillations. This allows the oscillations to act as a template-based filter mechanism that segregates the relevant stream and enhances its processing along fundamental organizing dimensions of auditory objects. Parallel to this, the alignment of oscillatory activity across hierarchical processing stages biases the transmission of relevant information by providing a common temporal reference frame for communication that is tied to the temporal structure of the attended auditory stream. A key to both local enhancement and network based communication effects is the alignment of oscillatory phase to the timing of relevant events by oscillatory phase reset. Converging evidence suggests that phase reset is initiated by direct non-lemniscal thalamocortical afferents, and is modulated by top-down attention via the reticular nucleus of the thalamus. Our first specific aim is to determine the set of rules that define the way ambient subthreshold activity in primary auditory cortex is modulated by attention and by the physical properties of auditory stimulus streams. Our second specific aim is to define the mechanism and determine the role of attention related changes in functional connectivity between primary and higher level belt regions of auditory cortex. Our third specific aim is to identify the thalamic structures that initiate and modulate oscillatory phse reset by analyzing the concurrent electrophysiological activity of auditory thalamic and primary cortical regions, and using electrical microstimulation. The application of paired recordings across different nodes of the auditory thalamocortical processing hierarchy will provide fundamental information on how dynamic brain networks function, and are modulated by attention. This will allow for a direct mechanistic interpretation of auditory perceptual and attention related deficits, which are hallmark symptoms of many debilitating neuropsychiatric disorders.

描述（由申请人提供）：大脑必须过滤少量的感官信息涌入，以选择与当前目标相关的信息，以适当指导自适应行为。尽管猕猴的研究已经确定了注意力处理对视觉处理的许多机制，但很少有研究检查了听觉系统中的相应影响。最近的发现提出了我们的总体假设，即注意通过调节内部局部兴奋性以及大脑中不同功能区域的信息的动态路由，以牺牲忽略的刺激的感觉来增强了刺激的感觉表示。拟议的研究的广泛目标是检查这一假设，从而定义了这些相互关联的基于本地和网络的过程的机制，以及它们对听觉处理层次结构不同节点中的专注听觉刺激处理的相对贡献。根据我们的假设，注意力调节正在进行的振荡活动，以使其性能（频率和相）与参加的刺激流的全局声学特征（分别为时间结构和音高）相匹配，从而以亚阈值神经元振荡的形式创建了该流的内部模型。这使振荡可以充当基于模板的滤波器机制，该机制将相关流分离并增强其沿听觉对象的基本组织维度的处理。与此同时，跨层次处理阶段的振荡活动的对齐方式通过提供与所段听觉流的时间结构相关的通用通信框架来偏见相关信息的传输。局部增强和基于网络的通信效应的关键是振荡阶段与振荡阶段复位的时机对齐相关事件的时间。融合的证据表明，相位复位是由直接非稳定丘脑皮层传入引发的，并通过丘脑的网状核通过自上而下的注意来调节。我们的第一个具体目的是确定集合 定义主要听觉皮层中环境亚阈值活动方式的规则受到注意和听觉刺激流的物理特性的调节。我们的第二个具体目的是定义机制并确定与听觉皮层初级和高级皮带区域之间功能连通性相关的功能的作用。我们的第三个具体目的是通过分析听觉丘脑和原发性皮质区域的并发电生理活性，并使用电微刺激来确定启动和调节振荡PHSE重置的丘脑结构。在听觉丘脑皮质处理层次结构的不同节点上配对记录的应用将提供有关动态大脑网络如何功能的基本信息，并通过注意力调节。这将允许对听觉感知和注意力相关的缺陷进行直接的机械解释，这是许多使神经精神疾病衰弱的标志性症状。