Paying attention to the world around us, deciding what to attend to and what to ignore, is a fundamental human ability. It affects how we perceive ourselves and our place in the environment. Deciding what to pay attention to is a critical component of everyday functioning. Two people viewing the same scene, such as a busy intersection, may have different perceptions and impressions about what is taking place. One may attend to the traffic cop waving her arms and directing traffic, while another looking in the same direction may attend to the bicycle that narrowly misses a racing taxicab.
The present program of research will focus on the willful direction of attention (what one chooses to attend to). The research aims to establish the neural correlates of voluntary attention in humans, by using simple laboratory tests, advanced methods to record and analyze human brain activity, and novel signal processing of the brain's electrical signals. Such information will inform us not only about how the normal healthy attention system operates, but also how it breaks down in cases of overload, disease, and brain damage.
