This project will examine the cognitive and neural mechanisms of visual selective attention in humans. Several experiments will assess the role that attention plays when human subjects perform visual discriminations, ranging from the detection of simple features such as color and orientation to the discrimination of complex conjunctions of form and color. These experiments will determine whether spatially focused attention is necessary for performing these discriminations, and the outcome of these experiments will have important implications for the computational role of selective attention. Additional experiments will explore the specific neural structures in which selective attention operates and the time-course of attentional allocation. The allocation of attention will be measured with a combination of behavioral measurements and electrophysiological recordings (using the event-related potential technique). The necessity of spatially focused attention for a given discrimination will be assessed by requiring subjects to perform two concurrent tasks: 1) a primary task that requires the subject to perform the discrimination of interest; and 2) a secondary task that will absorb any available attentional resources and ensure that subjects do not focus attention onto the primary task targets unless these targets cannot be discriminated without spatially focused attention. The neural structures in which attention operates will be assessed by measurements of electrophysiological responses with known neural generator sources. The time-course of attentional allocation will be measured by using behavioral and electrophysiological measures of attentional allocation to track the focusing of attention over time as subjects scan stimulus arrays. This research is relevant for several important mental health issues. Specifically, several psychiatric and neurological disturbances such as schizophrenia are characterized by deficits in attention, and an understanding of the function of attention in normal individuals is important for understanding and ameliorating these disorders. In addition, many developmental disorders such as dyslexia and attention deficit disorder also involve deficits in attentional processes. Reading, in particular, is extremely dependent on the mechanisms of attention that will be studied in this project, and the results of the proposed experiments may ultimately be useful for developing treatments for reading disabilities.
| Vogel, Edward K; Woodman, Geoffrey F; Luck, Steven J (2006) The time course of consolidation in visual working memory. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 32:1436-51 |
| Hopf, Jens-Max; Boelmans, Kai; Schoenfeld, Mircea Ariel et al. (2004) Attention to features precedes attention to locations in visual search: evidence from electromagnetic brain responses in humans. J Neurosci 24:1822-32 |
| Woodman, Geoffrey F; Vecera, Shaun P; Luck, Steven J (2003) Perceptual organization influences visual working memory. Psychon Bull Rev 10:80-7 |
| Vogel, Edward K; Luck, Steven J (2002) Delayed working memory consolidation during the attentional blink. Psychon Bull Rev 9:739-43 |
| Hopf, Jens-Max; Vogel, Edward; Woodman, Geoffrey et al. (2002) Localizing visual discrimination processes in time and space. J Neurophysiol 88:2088-95 |
| Schmidt, Brandon K; Vogel, Edward K; Woodman, Geoffrey F et al. (2002) Voluntazy and automatic attentional control of visual working memory. Percept Psychophys 64:754-63 |
| Vogel, E K; Woodman, G F; Luck, S J (2001) Storage of features, conjunctions and objects in visual working memory. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 27:92-114 |
| Woodman, G F; Vogel, E K; Luck, S J (2001) Visual search remains efficient when visual working memory is full. Psychol Sci 12:219-24 |
| Vogel, E K; Luck, S J (2000) The visual N1 component as an index of a discrimination process. Psychophysiology 37:190-203 |
| Luck, S J (1999) Direct and indirect integration of event-related potentials, functional magnetic resonance images, and single-unit recordings. Hum Brain Mapp 8:115-201 |
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