The neural bases of attention in action and emotion.

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A large amount of our everyday behaviour involves the integration of our perceptions and actions from information encountered by our different senses. For example, when we drive our car we must stay visually focused on many aspects of the road such as traffic, weather conditions, signage, pedestrians etc. This can become even more complex if we are also listening to the radio, using a cell phone, drinking a cup of coffee, or having a heated argument with a passenger. The work in my laboratory is primarily concerned with understanding how the brain is able to coordinate mental and physical activities that are required during complex behaviour. More specifically, this research investigates how human attention interacts with the action and emotion systems during the planning and execution of everyday behaviour. This research employs two sophisticated cognitive neuroscience techniques that provide information about the specific brain areas underlying complex behaviour (functional MRI), as well as the timing of the relevant brain activity (event-related potentials). One line of research is intended to map out the brain processes that control how we allocate our attention when we make delayed actions toward remembered targets. A second line of research will investigate how the attention system interacts with the emotion system. This work will examine the distracting effects of emotional information on simulated driving performance as well as the neural markers of these effects. This research will further our understanding of how the human brain organizes large amounts of task relevant information from different sources in order to control our complex behaviour.