The capacity of visual attention determines how many visual objects may be perceived at any moment. This capacity can be investigated with multiple object tracking (MOT) tasks, which have shown that it varies greatly between individuals. The neuronal mechanisms underlying capacity limits have remained poorly understood. Phase synchronization of cortical oscillations coordinates neuronal communication within the fronto-parietal attention network and between the visual regions during endogenous visual attention. We tested a hypothesis that attentional capacity is predicted by the strength of pretarget synchronization within attention-related cortical regions. We recorded cortical activity with magneto- and electroencephalography (M/EEG) while measuring attentional capacity with MOT tasks and identified large-scale synchronized networks from source-reconstructed M/EEG data. Individual attentional capacity was correlated with load-dependent strengthening of theta (3–8 Hz), alpha (8–10 Hz), and gamma-band (30–120 Hz) synchronization that connected the visual cortex with posterior parietal and prefrontal cortices. Individual memory capacity was also preceded by crossfrequency phase–phase and phase–amplitude coupling of alpha oscillation phase with beta and gamma oscillations. Our results show that good attentional capacity is preceded by efficient dynamic functional coupling and decoupling within brain regions and across frequencies, which may enable efficient communication and routing of information between sensory and attentional systems.

中文翻译：

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大规模同步的光谱和解剖模式预测人类注意力能力。

视觉注意力的能力决定了在任何时刻可以感知到多少视觉对象。这种能力可以通过多目标跟踪 (MOT) 任务进行研究，这表明它在个体之间差异很大。容量限制背后的神经元机制仍然知之甚少。皮层振荡的相位同步协调额顶注意网络内和内源性视觉注意期间视觉区域之间的神经元通信。我们测试了一个假设，即注意力能力是通过注意力相关皮层区域内的前目标同步强度来预测的。我们用磁和脑电图 (M/EEG) 记录皮层活动，同时通过 MOT 任务测量注意力能力，并从源重建的 M/EEG 数据中识别出大规模同步网络。个体注意力能力与负荷依赖性强化 theta (3–8 Hz)、alpha (8–10 Hz) 和 gamma 波段 (30–120 Hz) 同步，这些同步将视觉皮层与后顶叶和前额叶皮层连接起来。阿尔法振荡相位与贝塔和伽马振荡的交叉频率相位-相位和相位-幅度耦合也先于个体记忆容量。我们的研究结果表明，良好的注意力能力先于大脑区域内和跨频率的有效动态功能耦合和解耦，