The objective of these studies is to investigate brain mechanisms of selective attention in man by recording event-related brain potentials from the scalp during the execution of sensory-motor performance tasks. By examining changes in stimulus-evoked brain potentials as subjects shift their attention between different categories of stimuli (visual, auditory or somatosensory), we hope to determine the timing and localization of the selective routing of sensory information in the brain. These data will be used to evaluate the validity of competing psychological models of attention. We have identified the auditory-evoked N1 wave (onset latency at 50-80 msec) as a correlate of an early stage of selection between different channels of input while the P3 wave (onset at 150-200 msec) reflects the selection of a significant target stimulus at a later stage. Current experiments demonstrate that common, modality non-specific mechanisms are employed when attention is shifted among different locations in extrapersonal space; visual and auditory stimuli are processed concurrently when attention is directed to either one. In other experiments, specific brain waves were found to be associated with attended language messages, both in spoken and written form. We anticipate that these waves will provide objective measures of a person's attentive capabilities and will become useful in the characterization and diagnosis of the disorders of attention which accompany different psychopathological syndromes.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH025594-12
Application #
3374933
Study Section
(BPNB)
Project Start
1976-06-01
Project End
1986-06-30
Budget Start
1985-07-01
Budget End
1986-06-30
Support Year
12
Fiscal Year
1985
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California San Diego
Department
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
077758407
City
La Jolla
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
92093
Martinez, Antigona; Teder-Salejarvi, Wolfgang; Hillyard, Steven A (2007) Spatial attention facilitates selection of illusory objects: evidence from event-related brain potentials. Brain Res 1139:143-52
Martinez, A; Teder-Salejarvi, W; Vazquez, M et al. (2006) Objects are highlighted by spatial attention. J Cogn Neurosci 18:298-310
Teder-Salejarvi, Wolfgang A; Pierce, Karen L; Courchesne, Eric et al. (2005) Auditory spatial localization and attention deficits in autistic adults. Brain Res Cogn Brain Res 23:221-34
Di Russo, Francesco; Pitzalis, Sabrina; Spitoni, Grazia et al. (2005) Identification of the neural sources of the pattern-reversal VEP. Neuroimage 24:874-86
Teder-Salejarvi, W A; Di Russo, F; McDonald, J J et al. (2005) Effects of spatial congruity on audio-visual multimodal integration. J Cogn Neurosci 17:1396-409
Khoe, W; Mitchell, J F; Reynolds, J H et al. (2005) Exogenous attentional selection of transparent superimposed surfaces modulates early event-related potentials. Vision Res 45:3004-14
McDonald, John J; Teder-Salejarvi, Wolfgang A; Di Russo, Francesco et al. (2005) Neural basis of auditory-induced shifts in visual time-order perception. Nat Neurosci 8:1197-202
McDonald, John J; Teder-Salejarvi, Wolfgang A; Di Russo, Francesco et al. (2003) Neural substrates of perceptual enhancement by cross-modal spatial attention. J Cogn Neurosci 15:10-9
Di Russo, Francesco; Martinez, Antigona; Hillyard, Steven A (2003) Source analysis of event-related cortical activity during visuo-spatial attention. Cereb Cortex 13:486-99
Schoenfeld, M A; Tempelmann, C; Martinez, A et al. (2003) Dynamics of feature binding during object-selective attention. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 100:11806-11

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