Neural correlates of time and space recognition and their psychological interference

• Project/Area Number: 15K04188
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Experimental psychology
• Research Institution: Fukushima Medical University
• Principal Investigator: Kobayashi Shunsuke 福島県立医科大学, 医学部, 講師 (30579272)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
• Budget Amount: ¥4,550,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,050,000); Fiscal Year 2017: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000); Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,820,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥420,000); Fiscal Year 2015: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
• Keywords: 注意 / パーキンソン病 / 心理物理 / 機能的ＭＲＩ / 高次脳機能 / 時間 / 空間 / 意思決定 / アセチルコリン / donepezil / 機能的MRI / 認知機能 / 意志決定 / fMRI

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We studied neural correlates of attention to time and space by using the methods of psychophysics and functional MRI. We recruited 10 healthy subjects, 5 Parkinson's disease patients and 7 brain tumor patients. Psychophysics examination revealed bilateral interference of time domain to space domain and vice versa. The result suggests that, with high load of attention to time and spaced, the attention resource reaches limit and becomes compromised. Experiments with brain tumor patients suggested that parietal lesion enhances time-space interference. Functional imaging study suggested parietal activation during spatial task and cerebellar activation during temporal task.