Human sensory systems are continuously bombarded with far more input than they can process. As a result, attentional mechanisms have evolved so that available capacity is dedicated to encoding only the most salient and behaviorally relevant stimuli in the environment. In turn, the most important stimuli dominate perceptual awareness and have privileged access to memory stores and to the neural mechanisms that control decisions about how to best interact with external objects. In this proposal, we will use the visual system as a model to understand the basic brain-behavior processes involved in selective attention influence perception, working memory, and the computation of sensorimotor decisions. In addition, we will develop and employ new methods that use fMRI to non-invasively study attentional modulations and the information encoding capacity of sensory systems, in line with the strategic aim of the NIMH to develop novel tools and methodologies for understanding how populations of neural cells work together within and between brain regions. Traditional accounts hold that attention operates to magnify the neural response evoked by important stimuli, which makes a stimulus easier to perceive. This general framework is intuitive, and has been successfully guiding empirical studies for more than three decades. However, recent theoretical work suggests that attention should not simply increase the gain of neurons tuned to a relevant stimulus. Instead, attention should modulate the activity of sensory neurons in a more dynamic manner in order to maximize the probability that a specific perceptual task will be successfully completed. Often times, this counterintuitively requires enhancing the activity of neurons that are most responsive to stimuli that are not physically present in the visual field, because these neurons carry more information about very difficult discriminations between similar items (e.g. when a radiologist searches for a cancerous mass in a low-quality x-ray image). Recent empirical studies support this general framework, and further raise the intriguing possibility that individual differences in the optimality of attention can predict overall performance on difficult discriminations as well as the ability to improve on difficult discriminations with practice (learning). Here, we will critically evaluate this new theoretical perspective, and we will also explore how differences in attention across individuals can influence the precision of short-term memory and the efficiency of simple decision making processes. Collectively, our goal is to provide insights into the operation of attentional mechanisms so that we can more precisely characterize how the system should ideally operate. In turn, this should dramatically improve our ability to isolate specific aspects of attentional processing that can sometimes go awry, thereby enabling more targeted diagnoses and interventions in clinical settings.

Public Health Relevance

Whether listening to a teacher in a classroom or driving a car down the road, the ability to pay attention to important sensory stimuli in the environment is critical to success and survival. In the present research proposal, we will use the visual system as a model to better understand how attention selectively changes the activity of sensory neurons to promote more efficient perception, memory, and decision making. This knowledge will aid in the development of more objective tests for common disorders of attention - such as attention deficit disorder - so that diagnosis can proceed with greater precision and interventions can be started earlier.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH092345-02
Application #
8206466
Study Section
Cognition and Perception Study Section (CP)
Program Officer
Rossi, Andrew
Project Start
2010-12-15
Project End
2015-11-30
Budget Start
2011-12-01
Budget End
2012-11-30
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
$386,771
Indirect Cost
$136,771
Name
University of California San Diego
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
804355790
City
La Jolla
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
92093
Itthipuripat, Sirawaj; Serences, John T (2016) Integrating Levels of Analysis in Systems and Cognitive Neurosciences: Selective Attention as a Case Study. Neuroscientist 22:225-37
Itthipuripat, Sirawaj; Cha, Kexin; Rangsipat, Napat et al. (2015) Value-based attentional capture influences context-dependent decision-making. J Neurophysiol 114:560-9
Ester, Edward F; Zilber, Emma; Serences, John T (2015) Substitution and pooling in visual crowding induced by similar and dissimilar distractors. J Vis 15:15.1.4
Sprague, Thomas C; Saproo, Sameer; Serences, John T (2015) Visual attention mitigates information loss in small- and large-scale neural codes. Trends Cogn Sci 19:215-26
Ester, Edward F; Sprague, Thomas C; Serences, John T (2015) Parietal and Frontal Cortex Encode Stimulus-Specific Mnemonic Representations during Visual Working Memory. Neuron 87:893-905
Itthipuripat, Sirawaj; Ester, Edward F; Deering, Sean et al. (2014) Sensory gain outperforms efficient readout mechanisms in predicting attention-related improvements in behavior. J Neurosci 34:13384-98
Ester, Edward F; Ho, Tiffany C; Brown, Scott D et al. (2014) Variability in visual working memory ability limits the efficiency of perceptual decision making. J Vis 14:
Saproo, Sameer; Serences, John T (2014) Attention improves transfer of motion information between V1 and MT. J Neurosci 34:3586-96
Sprague, Thomas C; Ester, Edward F; Serences, John T (2014) Reconstructions of information in visual spatial working memory degrade with memory load. Curr Biol 24:2174-2180
Byers, Anna; Serences, John T (2014) Enhanced attentional gain as a mechanism for generalized perceptual learning in human visual cortex. J Neurophysiol 112:1217-27

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