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

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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.