Control of Attention in the human brain studied with real-time fMRI

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We can selectively attend to particular locations or features in our environment even when our gaze is kept fixed, by moving our focus of attention. This is accompanied by changes in signals recorded from the visual brain, but whether and how they alter visual perception and processing is poorly understood. Here I will exploit a new development in functional brain imaging known as real-time functional MRI. Functional MRI allows non-invasive recording of neural processing in the human brain, but typically requires many hours of processing. With real-time fMRI I can now record and immediately feedback brain signals to the subject who is being scanned. I will use this to teach subjects to voluntarily control activity in particular regions of the visual brain. By doing this I can test whether such changes in activity in visual cortex also change perception and processing of visual information, establishing a causal relationship. Moreover, I will also investigate how such real-time decoding of attention might be used to provide information about where a subject wishes to look or act on the environment, through thought alone. Such signals could potentially be used to control a 'neural prosthesis' in patients paralysed as a result of neurological disease.