Center for Brain Science and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
Curr Opin Insect Sci. 2016 Jun;15:9-15. doi: 10.1016/j.cois.2016.02.007. Epub 2016 Feb 22.
The capacity for selective attention appears to be required by any animal responding to an environment containing multiple objects, although this has been difficult to study in smaller animals such as insects. Clear operational characteristics of attention however make study of this crucial brain function accessible to any animal model. Whereas earlier approaches have relied on freely behaving paradigms placed in an ecologically relevant context, recent tethered preparations have focused on brain imaging and electrophysiology in virtual reality environments. Insight into brain activity during attention-like behavior has revealed key elements of attention in the insect brain. Surprisingly, a variety of brain structures appear to be involved, suggesting that even in the smallest brains attention might involve widespread coordination of neural activity.
选择性注意能力似乎是任何对包含多个物体的环境做出反应的动物所必需的，尽管这在昆虫等较小的动物身上很难研究。然而，注意力的明确操作特征使得任何动物模型都可以研究这种至关重要的大脑功能。虽然早期的方法依赖于放置在生态相关环境中的自由行为范式，但最近的系绳制剂则侧重于虚拟现实环境中的脑成像和电生理学。对类似注意行为期间大脑活动的洞察揭示了昆虫大脑中注意的关键要素。令人惊讶的是，各种大脑结构似乎都参与其中，这表明即使在最小的大脑中，注意力也可能涉及广泛的神经活动协调。
