Hanna Jevri, Kim Cora, Rampp Stefan, Buchfelder Michael, Müller-Voggel Nadia
Department of Neurosurgery, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany.
Department of Medicine, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
Imaging Neurosci (Camb). 2024 Mar 22;2. doi: 10.1162/imag_a_00117. eCollection 2024.
Directing and maintaining attention toward relevant information and away from non-relevant information is a critical competence of higher-order nervous systems. Here, we used directed connectivity to investigate how the human brain prioritizes appropriate processing paths when participants are performing a behavioral task requiring attention in the visual or the auditory modality. We show that the efficient transfer of information relevant for the task is mediated by a region- and task-specific decrease of alpha band connectivity from the parietal and, in case a motor response is required, motor cortex to the relevant sensory cortices. Further, alpha-band connectivity modulations reliably predict alpha power modulations in the task-related sensory cortices, particularly where the task-irrelevant cortex is inhibited via local alpha power increases. We suggest that the task- and region-specific modulation of alpha-band connectivity in the present study is a basic neuronal mechanism orchestrating the allocation of task-relevant neuronal resources related to and possibly underlying the previously reported sensory alpha power modulations in association with the allocation of competing attentional resources.
将注意力导向并维持在相关信息上，同时远离无关信息，是高阶神经系统的一项关键能力。在此，我们运用定向连接性来研究当参与者执行一项需要在视觉或听觉模态下集中注意力的行为任务时，人类大脑如何优先选择合适的处理路径。我们发现，与任务相关的信息的有效传递是由顶叶以及在需要运动反应时运动皮层至相关感觉皮层的α波段连接性的区域和任务特异性降低介导的。此外，α波段连接性调制可靠地预测了任务相关感觉皮层中的α功率调制，特别是在通过局部α功率增加抑制任务无关皮层的情况下。我们认为，本研究中α波段连接性的任务和区域特异性调制是一种基本的神经元机制，它协调了与先前报道的与竞争性注意力资源分配相关的感觉α功率调制相关且可能是其基础的任务相关神经元资源的分配。
