Brain mechanisms of involuntary and directed attention to simple visual objects in optimal and noisy environments.

The aim is to onvestigate the brain mechanisms involve in detection and discrimination of simple objects in optimal and noisy environments in different attention conditions. We will use a new technique - simultaneous fMRI/ERP measurements to reveal the spatial distribution and dynamics of brain activation during exogenous and directed attention. The first stage of the project will consist of testing the set-up with simple, standard Posner paradigm. In the second stage, we will then introduce objects embedded in noisy background to investigate the interplay between brain mechanisms involved in attention and in object perception. More specifically, we will examine how temporal, frontal and parietal areas jointly contribute to object perception in different attention conditions and how their contributions change over time. This project is innovative in combining simple attention paradigms with more complex object perception paradisms and in combining fMRI and ERP measurements.

Keywords:Visual object, Noise, ERP, Posner task, Attention, fMRI

Disciplines:Scientific computing, Bioinformatics and computational biology, Public health care, Public health services, Animal experimental and comparative psychology, Applied psychology, Human experimental psychology, Modelling, Multimedia processing