ND COBRE: VISUAL ORIENTING EFFECTS OF DIRECTIONAL CLUES

本子项目是利用由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源的众多研究子项目之一。子项目和研究者（PI）可能已经从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金，因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。列出的机构是中心的，不一定是研究者的机构。在日常生活中，方向线索提供了丰富的视觉信息来源，可以在许多方面影响人类的行为。来自人类和其他动物的方向性线索，比如他们的眼睛凝视方向或头部方向，提供了他们的注意力指向哪里的指示，因此可以提醒我们注意环境中潜在的重要物体和事件。其他非生物的定向信号，如箭头，也能起到类似的作用。最近发现，凝视和箭头提示会触发注意力的快速自动转移。迄今为止的研究主要集中在使用单一线索和单一目标来测量这种注意力转移；然而，在现实世界中，我们不断接触到各种各样的方向性线索，这些线索几乎总是出现在丰富而复杂的视觉环境中，而且经常出现在我们的目标和情感状态具有影响力的情况下。该项目的总体目标是了解我们在日常生活中如何处理、回应和利用方向性线索。具体来说，这个项目的目标是：研究方向线索在丰富的视觉环境中的影响；利用电生理记录技术识别与方向提示引起的注意力转移相关的神经活动；探讨情境、注意控制和意识意识在定向线索定向中的作用；并确定视觉方向信息的基本属性，并研究如何最有效地传达这些信息。这项研究将导致我们对人类空间注意力理论的改进，以及对视觉环境中与生物和社会相关的定向信息作出反应的空间注意力转移的神经过程。Alan Kingstone是Friesen博士的个人项目导师。Kingstone博士将每年访问Friesen博士的实验室一次（反之亦然），并将协助Friesen博士设计和解释实验，并为Friesen博士最终提交的R01拨款提案进行准备和批判性审查。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. In everyday life, directional cues provide a rich source of visual information that can influence human behavior in many ways. Directional cues from people and other animals, such as their eye gaze direction or head orientation, provide an indication of where their attention is directed, and thus can alert us to potentially important objects and events in our environment. Other, nonbiological, directional cues such as arrows can perform a similar function. Recently it was discovered that gaze and arrow cues trigger a shift of attention that is fast and automatic. The research to date has focused on measuring this attentional shift using a single cue and a single target; however, in the real world we are continually exposed to a variety of directional cues, and these cues almost always appear within a rich and complex visual context, and often in situations in which our goals and affective states are influential. The overall objective of this project is to understand how we process, respond to, and make use of directional cues in our daily lives. Specifically, the goals of this project are: to investigate the effects of directional cues in rich visual environments; to identify, using electrophysiological recording techniques, the neural activity associated with shifting attention in response to directional cues; to explore the roles of context, attentional control, and conscious awareness in orienting to directional cues; and to identify the essential properties of visual directional information and investigate how this information can be most effectively conveyed. This research will lead to a refinement of our theories of human spatial attention in general, and of the neural processes that underlie shifts of spatial attention in response to biologically and socially relevant directional information in the visual environment. Alan Kingstone serves as Dr. Friesen's Individual Project Mentor. Dr. Kingstone will visit Dr. Friesen's laboatory once per year (and vice versa), and will assist Dr. Friesen in the design and interpretation of experiments, and with the preparation and critical review of Dr. Friesen's eventual R01 grant proposal submission.