Neuromagnetic Investigation of Workload and Attention.
Abstract
The purpose of this project is to measure the brain's magnetic field, and use these data to isolate sources of fields within the brain that are differentially affected by workload and attention. A subsidiary goal is to determine if multiple or single sources underly components of the event related potential, and to locate these sources. During the current report period progress was made in instrumentation, data handling, and in experiments involving brain activity which was differentially affected by the state of attention of the subject. Modifications or our primary sensing system permitted an improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio by a factor of four. Experiments with this system had a major impact on the design of a multi-sensor array, which will be used on this project this year. A scanner for mapping the field about the head was designed and constructed. Software for handling multi-channel information was created. A means for communicating with a CYBER and a VAX computer for handling large amounts of data was implemented. Experiments revealed that visual attention to a stimulus caused a modulation in background brain activity from the visual cortex at the onset of a 100 msec component of the event related potential. The duration of the modulation depended upon the level of attention. A late 400 msec component in the event related potential has a cortical source in the temporal region. However, the 200 and 300 msec components have deep subcortical sources. Differences in response based on modality and nature of the task are still being studied. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 31, 1984
- Accession Number
- ADA140946
Entities
People
- L. Kaufman
Organizations
- New York University