Equipment for the analysis and storage of cognitive neuroimaging data

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Attention and emotion are both critical for normal human functioning. An important development in our understanding of these faculties concerns the recent finding that operations of selective attention can have affective consequences for visual stimuli. For example, ignoring an abstract visual pattern (versus attending to it) leads to a subsequent emotional devaluation of that pattern. Such results reflect a fundamental discovery about the two main systems of prioritization in the human brain. However, the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying this novel phenomenon have yet to be revealed. The research proposed in my NSERC Discovery Grant application, "Attention-emotion interactions: The affective consequences of selective attention" combines behavioural studies with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to reveal the network of brain regions that are recruited when attention impacts affective responses. The size of the datasets and amount of processing involved in fMRI analysis, however, require the use of specialized workstations and data storage solutions. The workstation and data storage system requested here are therefore critical for the proposed investigation of how attention and emotion operate together to guide our thoughts and behaviour. By providing a richer understanding of how the brain systems of attention and emotion interact, the results of this research program are expected to provide a stronger foundation for addressing impairments in function that occur when these systems are affected by illness, neurological disorders, and stroke.