Chafee M V, Averbeck B B, Crowe D A, Georgopoulos A P
Brain Science Center (11B), Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Arch Ital Biol. 2002 Jul;140(3):247-51.
In order to compare spatial attention and visual processing capabilities of humans and rhesus macaques, we developed a visual maze task both could perform. Maze stimuli were constructed of orthogonal line segments displayed on a monitor. Each was octagonal in outline and contained a central square (the 'start box'). A single ('main') path, containing a random number of turns, extended outward from the start box, and either reached an exit in the maze's perimeter, or a blind ending within the maze. Subjects maintained ocular fixation within the start box, and indicated their judgment whether the path reached an exit or not by depressing one of two keys (humans) or foot pedals (monkeys). Successful maze solution by human subjects required a minimum viewing time. Replacing the maze with a masking stimulus after a variable interval revealed that the percent correct performance increased systematically with greater viewing time, reaching a plateau of approximately 85% correct if mazes were visible for 500 ms or more. A multiple linear regression analysis determined that the response time of both species depended upon several parameters of the main path, including the number of turns, total length, and exist status. Human and nonhuman primates required comparable time to process each turn in the path, whereas monkeys were faster than humans in processing each unit of path length. The data suggest that a covert analysis of the maze proceeds from the center outward along the main path in the absence of saccadic eye movements, and that both monkeys and humans undertake such an analysis during the solution of visual mazes.
为了比较人类和恒河猴的空间注意力及视觉处理能力，我们开发了一种两者都能执行的视觉迷宫任务。迷宫刺激由显示器上显示的正交线段构成。每个迷宫轮廓为八边形，包含一个中央正方形（“起始框”）。一条单一的（“主”）路径从起始框向外延伸，包含随机数量的转弯，要么通向迷宫周边的出口，要么通向迷宫内部的死胡同。受试者在起始框内保持眼睛注视，并通过按下两个按键之一（人类）或脚踏板（猴子）来表明他们对路径是否通向出口的判断。人类受试者成功解决迷宫问题需要最短的观看时间。在可变间隔后用掩蔽刺激替换迷宫显示，正确表现的百分比随着观看时间的增加而系统地增加，如果迷宫可见500毫秒或更长时间，正确表现达到约85%的平稳状态。多元线性回归分析确定，两个物种的反应时间取决于主路径的几个参数，包括转弯数量、总长度和出口状态。人类和非人类灵长类动物处理路径中每个转弯所需的时间相当，而猴子在处理每个路径长度单位时比人类更快。数据表明，在没有眼球跳动的情况下，对迷宫的隐蔽分析沿着主路径从中心向外进行，并且猴子和人类在解决视觉迷宫问题时都会进行这样的分析。
