Dynamic scene processing in humans

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When someone crosses the street at a busy intersection this person has to simultaneously process a multitude of elements, many of which are dynamic. The person must be able to perceive when the cars are moving in a collision path and must be able to avoid pedestrians in the crowd. Many of these events are happening simultaneously. The person must process all of this information, make decisions about what is happening around and subsequently physically respond in a congruent fashion to avoid a catastrophic outcome. A similar analogy can be made for sports where situations can sometimes be even more demanding then the above example. Regardless of how critical these activities may be in our daily lives, we still know relatively little about how we process this type of information, as it is inherently complex. The program I propose for my NSERC is to build a better understanding of how we process complex dynamic stimuli and what brain mechanisms are solicited to achieve such tasks. The short-term objectives of my research program are: 1) To better characterize brain systems related to how we process complex dynamic stimuli using the 3-dimensional object tracking task as a benchmark. 2) To determine how and when the use of EEG attention markers like the alpha-peak frequency, used in a closed loop paradigm can enhance the learning functions under different conditions. 3) To adapt the Contralateral delay paradigm to an MOT-type task for understanding the role of working memory when processing complex dynamic stimuli 4) To determine whether the training with a closed-loop system compares with the usual learning functions and impacts on Meta-State transitions. Long-term objectives are: 1) To propose a general model of how we process dynamic visual scenes. 2) Build a better understanding of the different elements used for processing more realistic complex dynamic scenes such as pedestrian-crowd movements, sports activities, or flying planes. 3) Establish the extent of transferability from training programs to more general abilities related to daily activities (far transfer). The projects proposed are feasible and a direct continuation with my previous NSERC-funded research. This program has been very successful in producing HQP training and it is anticipated to continue to be successful in this regard.