Riken Discovers Neural Response of Primary Visual and Auditory Cortexes Amplified by Focusing Attent Medical Video by Mental Health

Riken Discovers Neural Response of Primary Visual and Auditory Cortexes Amplified by Focusing Attent

Mental Health

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DigInfo - http://movie.diginfo.tv Researchers at Riken's Human Brain Dynamics Laboratory have been successful in understanding how the brain's spatiotemporal response changes, depending on whether a person is paying attention or not, even when viewing or listening to the same stimuli. In our everyday surroundings, there is too much information for our brains to process all of it. So, it is believed that information that we focuse on is processed preferentially so that the limited processing capacity of the brain can be utilized efficiently. However, it had not been understood at what stage of sensory processing the brain selects information that is given attention, and in particular it had not been properly understood what sensory area is first affected as a result of focusing attention. The research team discovered that the initial neural response of the primary visual cortex (V1) and primary auditory cortex (A1), the first cortical areas of the brain receiving information about the stimuli, is amplified by attention. The results were obtained by analyzing magnetoencephalography, or MEG, signals and magnetic field tomography, or MFT. MEG measures the magnetic field outside of the brain, which is generated by neural electrical activity in the brain. MFT estimates the generators and represents them three-dimensionally as electrical current density distribution over all areas of the brain. In the experiment, the subject focused his attention on the area indicated on the screen in front of him. The team measured the difference in neural responses when pictures were shown in the attended area and outside the area. As a result, it was found that neural response elicited by the stimuli at the attended location is amplified in the primary visual cortex (V1) and primary auditory cortex (A1) as they first arrive there. Revealing the neural mechanism associated with focusing attention will help explain the higher brain function mechanism in humans. It is hoped this will lead to developing new treatment methods for mental illnesses such as dementia and schizophrenia in which there is damage to the higher brain function.