Coull J T
Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, Institute of Neurology and University College London, UK.
Prog Neurobiol. 1998 Jul;55(4):343-61. doi: 10.1016/s0301-0082(98)00011-2.
Attention and arousal are multi-dimensional psychological processes, which interact closely with one another. The neural substrates of attention, as well as the interaction between arousal and attention, are discussed in this review. After a brief discussion of psychological and neuropsychological theories of attention, event-related potential correlates of attention are discussed. Essentially, attention acts to modulate stimulus-induced electrical potentials (N100/P100, P300, N400), rather than generating any unique potentials of its own. Functional neuroimaging studies of attentional orienting, selective attention, divided attention and sustained attention (and its inter-dependence on underlying levels of arousal) are then reviewed. A distinction is drawn between the brain areas which are crucially involved in the top-down modulation of attention (the 'sources' of attention) and those sensory-association areas whose activity is modulated by attention (the 'sites' of attentional expression). Frontal and parietal (usually right-lateralised) cortices and thalamus are most often associated with the source of attentional modulation. Also, the use of functional neuroimaging to test explicit hypotheses about psychological theories of attention is emphasised. These experimental paradigms form the basis for a 'new generation' of functional imaging studies which exploit the dynamic aspect of imaging and demonstrate how it can be used as more than just a 'brain mapping' device. Finally, a review of psychopharmacological studies in healthy human volunteers outlines the contributions of the noradrenergic, cholinergic and dopaminergic neurotransmitter systems to the neurochemical modulation of human attention and arousal. While, noradrenergic and cholinergic systems are involved in 'low-level' aspects of attention (e.g. attentional orienting), the dopaminergic system is associated with more 'executive' aspects of attention such as attentional set-shifting or working memory.
注意力和唤醒是多维心理过程，它们彼此密切相互作用。本综述讨论了注意力的神经基础，以及唤醒与注意力之间的相互作用。在简要讨论了注意力的心理学和神经心理学理论之后，探讨了与注意力相关的事件相关电位。本质上，注意力起到调节刺激诱发的电位（N100/P100、P300、N400）的作用，而不是产生其自身任何独特的电位。接着回顾了关于注意力定向、选择性注意力、分散注意力和持续性注意力（及其对基础唤醒水平的相互依赖性）的功能神经影像学研究。区分了在注意力的自上而下调节中起关键作用的脑区（注意力的“来源”）和其活动受注意力调节的感觉联合区（注意力表达的“位点”）。额叶和顶叶（通常为右侧化）皮质以及丘脑最常与注意力调节的来源相关。此外，强调了使用功能神经影像学来检验关于注意力心理学理论的明确假设。这些实验范式构成了“新一代”功能成像研究的基础，这些研究利用成像的动态方面，并展示了它如何不仅可以用作“脑图谱”设备。最后，对健康人类志愿者的精神药理学研究综述概述了去甲肾上腺素能、胆碱能和多巴胺能神经递质系统对人类注意力和唤醒的神经化学调节的贡献。虽然去甲肾上腺素能和胆碱能系统参与注意力的“低水平”方面（例如注意力定向），但多巴胺能系统与注意力的更多“执行”方面相关，如注意力集转换或工作记忆。
