Moyal Roy, Turker Hamid B, Luh Wen-Ming, Swallow Khena M
Cognitive Science Program, Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States.
National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, United States.
Front Psychol. 2022 Jun 13;13:891682. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.891682. eCollection 2022.
Though dividing one's attention between two input streams typically impairs performance, detecting a behaviorally relevant stimulus can sometimes enhance the encoding of unrelated information presented at the same time. Previous research has shown that selection of this kind boosts visual cortical activity and memory for concurrent items. An important unanswered question is whether such effects are reflected in processing quality and functional connectivity in visual regions and in the hippocampus. In this fMRI study, participants were asked to memorize a stream of naturalistic images and press a button only when they heard a predefined target tone (400 or 1,200 Hz, counterbalanced). Images could be presented with a target tone, with a distractor tone, or without a tone. Auditory target detection increased activity throughout the ventral visual cortex but lowered it in the hippocampus. Enhancements in functional connectivity between the ventral visual cortex and the hippocampus were also observed following auditory targets. Multi-voxel pattern classification of image category was more accurate on target tone trials than on distractor and no tone trials in the fusiform gyrus and parahippocampal gyrus. This effect was stronger in visual cortical clusters whose activity was more correlated with the hippocampus on target tone than on distractor tone trials. In agreement with accounts suggesting that subcortical noradrenergic influences play a role in the attentional boost effect, auditory target detection also caused an increase in locus coeruleus activity and phasic pupil responses. These findings outline a network of cortical and subcortical regions that are involved in the selection and processing of information presented at behaviorally relevant moments.
虽然在两个输入流之间分散注意力通常会损害表现，但检测到行为相关刺激有时可以增强同时呈现的无关信息的编码。先前的研究表明，这种选择会增强视觉皮层活动以及对同时出现项目的记忆。一个重要的未解决问题是，这种效应是否反映在视觉区域和海马体的处理质量和功能连接上。在这项功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究中，参与者被要求记住一连串自然主义图像，并且仅在听到预定义的目标音调（400或1200赫兹，平衡处理）时按下按钮。图像可以与目标音调、干扰音调一起呈现，或者不与音调一起呈现。听觉目标检测增加了整个腹侧视觉皮层的活动，但降低了海马体的活动。在听觉目标出现后，还观察到腹侧视觉皮层与海马体之间功能连接的增强。在梭状回和海马旁回中，图像类别的多体素模式分类在目标音调试验中比在干扰音调和无音调试验中更准确。在目标音调试验中，其活动与海马体相关性更强的视觉皮层簇中，这种效应更强。与表明皮质下去甲肾上腺素能影响在注意力增强效应中起作用的观点一致，听觉目标检测还导致蓝斑核活动增加和阶段性瞳孔反应。这些发现勾勒出一个皮质和皮质下区域网络，它们参与在行为相关时刻呈现的信息的选择和处理。
