CAREER: Behavioral and Neural Mechanisms of Attention Capture by Episodic Long-Term Memory

众所周知，注意力对学习和记忆至关重要，但人们对过去的记忆如何影响注意力的了解相对较少。在国家科学基金会的支持下，Deborah Hannula博士将进行结合眼球追踪和功能性核磁共振成像的实验，以表征情景长期记忆捕获注意力的认知和神经过程。这些研究将通过a)确定与基于记忆的捕获相关的神经机制，以及b)确定避免和脱离这种捕获的方法，来解决关于长期记忆检索，特别是负面记忆的检索如何影响目标导向行为的问题。这个项目结合了记忆和注意力这两个典型的分开的研究领域，来研究记忆检索背景下的注意力。这种综合方法使我们更接近于理解大脑在现实世界中运作时发生的高度互动的认知过程。通过长时记忆表征注意力捕获是很重要的，因为在某些情况下，长时记忆检索是不可取的（例如，创伤后应激障碍）。识别参与抑制或从长期记忆中分离注意力的神经机制可能会导致新的发展，有助于纠正精神病患者的这些症状。为了补充上述研究目标，PI还将实施一项教育计划，为学生和社区成员提供互动和可访问的认知科学介绍，重点是记忆和注意力。

Attention is well known to be critically important for learning and memory but relatively less is known about how attention could be influenced by what one remembers from the past. With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Deborah Hannula will conduct experiments combining eye-tracking with functional MRI to characterize the cognitive and neural processes underlying the capture of attention by episodic long-term memory. These studies will address questions about how long-term memory retrieval, particularly retrieval of negative memory, can influence goal-directed behavior by a) identifying the neural mechanisms that are correlated with memory-based capture, and b) identifying ways to avoid and disengage from such capture. This project combines memory and attention, two typically separated areas of studies, to investigate attention in the context of memory retrieval. This integrative approach moves one step closer to gaining an understanding of the highly interactive cognitive processes taking place when the brain operates in the real world. Characterization of attention capture by long-term memory is important because in some situations long-term memory retrieval is undesirable (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder). Identifying the neural mechanisms involved in suppressing or disengaging attention from long-term memory may lead to new developments that could help remediate these symptoms in psychiatric populations. To complement the research objectives outlined above, the PI will also implement an education plan that will provide students and community members with interactive and accessible introductions to cognitive science, with an emphasis on memory and attention.