An ERP study for the degrees of the difficulty in visual search

The present study mainly probed the relationships between ERP components and the degrees of difficulty in visual search. Three experimental and one controlled conditions were randomly selected. Results showed that the P1, N1, and P2 amplitudes and latencies had no significant differences among the three experimental and one controlled conditions, and the ERP waveforms of low perceptual load of visual search were different from that of high perceptual load. These results might indicate that the latencies and amplitudes of initial P1, N1 and P2 in high and low perceptual load conditions were almost the same. The ERP waveforms of parallel search were very different from that of serial search, and the ERP waveforms of serial search were very similar. The P3 amplitudes increased as the degrees of the difficulty in visual search decreased.     

Early ERP effects on the scaling of spatial attention in visual search

This article describes the examination of the spatial‘scaling＇ effect of visual attention with the technique of event-related potential （ERP）. Eighteen participants were involved in a visual search task in which the cue-target paradigm was used. The search array was three concentric circles consisting of randomly selected English letters that were equally distributed in each circle. The behavioral and ERP data were recorded, respectively. The behavioral results showed that the response time increased and the response accuracy decreased with the increase of precue size. The ERPs amplitude of PI and NI components evoked by search array increased with the reduction of precue size. However, the latencies of these ERP components did not show significant differences between conditions. The hierarchical data of both behavioral assessment and ERPs provided evidence for the spatial ＇scaling＇ effect of visual attention. The amplitudes of PI and N 1 components may be used as indices to examine the effect of spatial ＇scaling＇. In different tasks, the display-set size of stimuli and the task complexity may be important factors that affect the attention allocation.     

正常组儿童（4岁～8岁）多导程图形视觉诱发电位的研究

应用ＭＶＴＩＩＩ型１６ 导视觉诱发电位仪和相应的软件包,全视野检测了１００ 名年龄在４ 岁～８ 岁之间视功能正常儿童５ 个空间频率下单眼,以及３ 个空间频率下双眼的１４ 导ＰＶＥＰ,得到该年龄段视功能正常儿童后八导ＰＶＥＰ的Ｎ１、Ｐ１、Ｎ２ 的潜伏期随空间频率增加而增加．左右眼ＰＶＥＰ的有关参数值无显著区别;女性儿童ＰＶＥＰ的振幅略高于男性,潜伏期略短于男性．ＰＶＥＰ电位地形图基本呈左右对称分布．     

Brain dynamic mechanisms on the visual attention scale with Chinese characters cues

The temporal dynamics in brain evoked by the scale of visual attention with the cues of Chinese characters were studied by recording event-related potentials (ERPs). With the fixed orientation of visual attention, 14 healthy young participants performed a search task in which the search array was preceded by Chinese characters cues, “大, 中, 小” (large, medium, small). 128 channels scalp ERPs were recorded to study the role of visual attention scale played in the visual spatial attention. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the ERP components evoked by the three Chinese characters cues except the inferoposterior N2 latency. The targets evoked P2, N2 amplitudes and latency have significant differences with the different cues of large, middle and small, while P1 and N1 components had no significant difference. The results suggested that the processing of scale of visual attention was mainly concerned with P2, N2 components, while the P1, N1 components were mainly related with the processing of visual orientation information.     

基于工作记忆内容的注意导向的影响因素

工作记忆内容对视觉搜索中注意选择的影响到底如何,与工作记忆内容匹配的项目是否总是会自动捕获注意,至今仍存在争议。本研究针对前人研究中存在的差异和不足,统一采用"记忆-搜索"双任务范式来探讨搜索任务难度、搜索项目刺激强度以及记忆任务呈现时间对基于工作记忆内容的注意导向的影响。结果发现:当采用困难搜索任务时,干扰条件下被试反应时与中性条件下反应时无显著差异,说明难度会影响工作记忆内容对注意选择的自动导向效应,但这种影响只有在搜索任务难度足够大的情况下才能体现出来。而在本研究中并未发现刺激强度和记忆任务呈现时间这两个因素对基于工作记忆内容的注意导向的影响,即无论刺激强度高低,或记忆任务呈现时间长或短,与工作记忆内容匹配的搜索项目还是会"自动捕获注意",导致干扰条件下被试反应时显著慢于中性条件。     

知觉负荷对恐惧和中性分心面孔记忆的调节

采用视觉搜索任务,意外记忆再认任务调查编码阶段的知觉负荷对恐惧和中性分心面孔记忆的调节作用。结果发现:在视觉搜索任务中,高知觉负荷条件下的正确率显著低于低知觉负荷,反应时显著长于低知觉负荷条件;在意外记忆再认任务中,由于被试对新恐惧面孔的虚报率较高,造成中性分心面孔的记忆成绩显著高于恐惧面孔。可见,人们对恐惧面孔具有一定的反应偏向。     

Neural mechanisms of perceptual grouping in human visual cortex

The current work examined neural substrates of perceptual grouping in human visual cortex using event-related potential (ERP) recording. Stimulus arrays consisted of local elements that were either evenly spaced (uniform stimuli) or grouped into columns or rows by proximity or color similarity (grouping stimuli). High-density ERPs were recorded while subjects identified orientations of perceptual groups in stimulus arrays that were presented randomly in one of the four quadrants of the visual field.Both uniform and grouping stimulus arrays elicited an early ERP component (C1), which peaked at about 70ms after stimulus onset and changed its polarity as a function of stimulated elevations. Dipole modeling based on realistichead boundary-element models revealed generators of the C1 component in the calcarine cortex. The C1 was modulated by perceptual grouping of local elements based on proximity, and this grouping effect was stronger in the upper than in the lower visual field. The findings provide ERP evidence for the engagement of human primary visual cortex in the early stage of perceptual grouping.     

The role of different cues in the brain mechanism on visual spatial attention

The visual spatial attention mechanism in the brain was studied in 16 young subjects through the visual search paradigm of precue-target by the event-related potential (ERP) technique, with the attentive ranges cued by different scales of Chinese character and region cues. The results showed that the response time for Chinese character cues was much longer than that for region cues especially for small region cues. With the exterior interferences, the target stimuli recognition under region cues was much quicker than that under Chinese character cues. Compared with that under region cues, targets under Chinese character cues could lead to increase of the posterior P1, decrease of the N1 and increase of the P2. It should also be noted that the differences between region cues and Chinese character cues were affected by the interference types. Under exterior interferences, no significant difference was found between region cues and Chinese character cues; however, it was not the case under the interior interferences. Considering the difference between the exterior interferences and the interior interferences, we could conclude that with the increase of difficulty in target recognition there was obvious difference in the consumption of anterior frontal resources by target stimuli under the two kinds of cues.     

Neural correlates of short-term perceptual learning in orientation discrimination indexed by event-related potentials

The current work investigated the neural correlates of visual perceptual learning in grating orientation discrimination by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) from human adults. Subjects were trained with a discrimination task of grating orientation in three consecutive training sessions within 2 h. While reaction times (RTs) were shortened gradually across training sessions, the N1 was decreased and the P2 was increased over the parietal and occipital areas. A broadly distributed P3 was increased along with more practices. In addition, the time course of learning reflected in the P2 and P3 amplitudes was in line with the changes of reaction times and exhibited a stable level during later training. The impli- cations of these results to the neural mechanisms subserving perceptual learning were discussed.     

与飞行任务相关的认知负荷对听觉事件相关电位的影响

为研究与飞行任务相关的认知负荷对听觉事件相关电位的影响, 采用14名被试者开展飞行模拟实验, 完成基于不同认知负荷水平的仪表监视任务。同时, 由耳机双侧呈现oddball模式下的听觉刺激, 引导被试者关注飞行模拟任务, 忽略听觉刺激。记录听觉事件相关电位失匹配负波(mismatch negativity, MMN)、N1和P2作为认知负荷的评价指标。实验结果表明认知负荷对额叶MMN的影响显著, MMN平均波幅在高认知负荷下显著增强, 表明被试者对任务不相关信息的自动加工能力提高, 且MMN平均波幅与模拟飞行期间被试者对异常信息的正确探测率正相关。提示额中央区的MMN对于与飞行任务相关的认知负荷具有较好的敏感性, 并可能用于复杂飞行任务的认知负荷水平评价。但是, 实验结果也表明认知负荷对早期听觉成分N1, P2以及颞叶MMN的影响不明显, 在一定程度上说明了听觉事件相关电位在评价与飞行任务相关的认知负荷时所表现出的复杂效应。     

Early scale effect and hemisphere superiority on the visual spatial attention: From the electrophysiological evidence of ERP

The visual attention mechanism in the brain was studied among 16 young subjects through the precue-target visual search paradigm using the event-related potentials (ERPs) technique, with the attentive ranges cued with different scales of Chinese words. The results showed that the response time was shortened as the cue scale was reduced, while the amplitudes of the P1 and N1 components of the ERPs increased. These results not only provided the electrophysiological evidence supporting the spotlight theory, but also indicated that the spotlight effect occurred during the early period of the selected attention. Two kinds of separation in the P2 effect were observed. One separation was between the P1 effect and P2 effect, which meant that additional computation was needed when the spatial scale of attention was enlarged; the other was between the left and right hemisphere of the P2 effect, which indicates that the attentive processing of the cue range mainly occurred in the left hemisphere.     

Asymmetry between the upper and lower visual fields： An event-related potential study

ASYMMETRIES OF HUMAN VISUAL INFORMATION PROCESS- ING ACROSS VISUAL FIELDS HAVE BEEN AN INTERESTING ISSUE IN COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY AND NEUROSCIENCE. IN ADDITION TO INVESTIGATIONS OF THE ASYMMETRIES BETWEEN THE LEFT AND RIGHT VISUAL FIELDS THAT ARE BELIEVED …     

公路平面线形与驾驶员视觉搜索模式相关性分析

为定量描述驾驶员视觉搜索模式与公路平面线形的相关性,基于眼动试验展开对驾驶员视觉搜索模式的研究.首先通过室内试验获得驾驶员在不同公路平面线形条件下的眼动指标;其次,从宏观层面到微观层面分析驾驶员视觉搜索模式与平面线形的相关性;最后,通过室外试验分析验证室内试验的有效性和结论的可靠性.结果表明:在不同平面线形条件下,驾驶员注视持续时间具有显著差异性.此外,平曲线半径、缓和曲线A值与驾驶员注视持续时间有明显的相关性.应用拉格朗日中值定理发现,当平曲线半径R>1.5 km或直线段结束前100 m时驾驶员注视持续时间变化显著,即为驾驶员视觉搜索变化的关键点.     

开关线性复合变换低阻输出特性对系统的优化

为了在现有电力电子技术基础上进一步提高功率变换器的综合性能，揭示了一种由电力电子开关电路与线性电路有机结合而派生的开关线性复合功率变换器(SLH)。简述了该类变换器的基本工作原理，列举了并联型和串联型两种电路拓扑及其特点，说明了SLH的低阻输出特性对提高功率变换器静动态性能的作用，并对SLH与典型的PWM LC滤波单元的变换器进行了比较分析，给出了用于电源和传动系统不同负载条件下的测试数据和典型波形。结果表明，SLH在高效与优波兼顾、多类负载适应性和抗负载扰动能力方面具有综合优化性能。     

Electrophysiological measurement of rapid shifts of attention during visual search.

The perception of natural visual scenes that contain many objects poses computational problems that are absent when objects are perceived in isolation. Vision researchers have captured this attribute of real-world perception in the laboratory by using visual search tasks, in which subjects search for a target object in arrays containing varying numbers of non-target distractor objects. Under many conditions, the amount of time required to detect a visual search target increases as the number of objects in the stimulus array increases, and some investigators have proposed that this reflects the serial application of attention to the individual objects in the array. However, other investigators have argued that this pattern of results may instead be due to limitations in the processing capacity of a parallel processing system that identifies multiple objects concurrently. Here we attempt to address this longstanding controversy by using an electrophysiological marker of the moment-by-moment direction of attention-the N2pc component of the event-related potential waveform--to show that attention shifts rapidly among objects during visual search.     

加权平方误差测度下的快速矢量量化算法

为降低加权平方误差测度下的矢量量化运算量,针对加权因子固定与不固定2种情况,分别提出了快速搜索算法。加权因子固定时,对等均值最近临搜索算法做了相应改动即可应用;加权因子随输入矢量变化时,提出了一种分裂多级等均值最近临搜索算法,算法提出了3个新的排除准则,在不同的场合下选用部分或者全部,从而有效降低码字搜索运算量。测试结果表明:分裂多级等均值最近临搜索算法能够有效降低加权平方误差测度下矢量量化的运算量,比全搜索算法能够节省约69%的运算量。     

一种纯内源性成分的事件相关脑电位

闪现刺激物诱发的视觉事件相关脑电位（ＥＲＰｓ）中，只有那些分布在较晚时域中的波，例如Ｐ３００、Ｎ４００等，内源性成分占优势，并与大脑的认知活动建立了较确切联系。本文报告一种模拟人类自然阅读时的事件相关脑电位（ＩＮＲ－ＥＲＰｓ），这种ＩＮＲ－ＥＲＰｓ的开矿学特征，不受注意的自动俘获效应的影响，不论是较晚还是较早时域中的波，都几乎是纯内源性的，并显示出了明显的心理学含义，我们还发现：对于同样的认知作业     

加权平方误差测度下的快速矢量量化算法

为降低加权平方误差测度下的矢量量化运算量,针对加权因子固定与不固定两种情况,分别提出了快速搜索算法。加权因子固定时,对等均值最近临搜索算法做了相应改动即可应用;加权因子随输入矢量变化时,提出了一种分裂多级等均值最近临搜索算法,算法提出了3个新的排除准则,在不同的场合下选用部分或者全部,从而有效降低码字搜索运算量。测试结果表明:分裂多级等均值最近临搜索算法能够有效降低加权平方误差测度下矢量量化的运算量,比全搜索算法能够节省约69%的运算量。     

Visual search for a conjunction of movement and form is parallel

Treisman has proposed when a human subject performs a visual search, the search is parallel for targets defined by a single feature, and serial for targets defined by a conjunction of features. Here we report that this is not true for targets defined by a conjunction of the features movement and form. Detection of a moving X among randomly distributed moving Os and static Xs is parallel. Search is uninfluenced by the stationary stimuli despite their spatial intermingling with the moving items. Thus, attention can be restricted to a spatially dispersed perceptual group, defined by common movement. This contradicts previous conclusions from visual search experiments that attention can only be assigned to contiguous regions of visual space. The search process first segregates the array into moving and stationary items, and then examines the moving group for the target form. Cells in the middle temporal region (cortical area MT) have the properties required to perform these operations.     

对返回抑制的事件相关电位研究及注意动量流假说

应用事件相关电位(ERP)研究返回抑制(IOR).返回抑制是指当提示和靶出现之间时间间隔延长到一定量,提示不仅不会使对靶的反应易化,反而受到抑制的现象.本实验希望探究IOR的神经机制.实验结果显示IOR效应有明显的P1和N1波出现,且易化使P1波幅增大,N1波幅减小,抑制使P1波幅减小,使N1波幅增大.这提示P1和N1波幅代表不同的神经机制.基于ERP结果及先前对IOR的注意理论解释,提出注意动量流惯性的假说,它能较好地说明IOR的ERP效应.