The contents of our minds are not rigidly determined by the stimuli that happen to be impinging on our senses. Instead, we perceivers actively pick and choose a subset of the available information about the outside world for detailed processing, relegating other information to the shadows of consciousness. This active process of perceptual selection is called attention. With the support of the National Science Foundation, Dr. Winrich Freiwald and his colleagues at The Rockefeller University are tackling fundamental questions about how the brain implements attention. Brain imaging techniques are being used to find the brain areas controlling attention and to find out how they are connected to form attention networks. The research team will test the hypothesis that attention comes about from the interplay of two networks of brain areas, one network controlling what is being paid attention to and the other one scanning the environment for unexpected events currently outside the focus of attention. By their anatomical location in the brain, these networks are referred to as 'dorsal' and 'ventral,' respectively. The researchers are learning how the ventral attention network scans the environment, and how it interrupts processing in the dorsal brain network in order to change the focus of attention. The research uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in humans and monkeys to identify the brain areas and connections of the ventral attention network. Neural activity in relevant brain areas is artificially elicited or suppressed to directly prove how the ventral network affects the dorsal attention network and the overall control of attention.
When a component of the attention system is harmed by a brain injury, severe deficits follow like the attentional neglect of half of the visual environment. Results of the project can lead to new strategies for rehabilitation of brain injuries. Because social stimuli like faces attract attention automatically, the research can also help to understand humans as social beings. With this program, a wide variety of advanced training opportunities in brain imaging techniques for graduate and postgraduate scientists and physicians is offered, and classes are taught on various aspects of vision science. A new laboratory course in sensory neurophysiology is being offered for graduate students. A particular emphasis in this project is placed on introducing high school students and undergraduate students to both results and practice of brain research in order to increase awareness of brain research and interest in scientific practice in general. Because brain imaging of cognitive capabilities like attention quickly captures the imagination of many people, results of these investigations will be disseminated broadly in order to enhance scientific understanding in society. We can control attention voluntarily, yet some external stimuli, 'strange things, moving things, wild animals,' in the words of the psychologist William James, can break through and capture our minds. This project is investigating how the brain allows for such dynamic interactions of attention with the environment. Attention underlies everything we do, whether we just watch the world, walk in it, or think about it. Thus, understanding attention is of fundamental importance to understanding how our minds work.
