Project 3: Attention to threat: Motivation and Memory

我们假设，在缺乏动机相关刺激的情况下，对动机相关刺激的关注增加 指导性的或任务的操作，代表一种“自然的选择性注意”，在这种情况下，提示 激活激励系统自然会引起和直接引起注意(Lang，Bradley，&Cuthbert，1997)。在……里面 这个项目的假设是，自然的选择性注意最初与防御性激活有关 都被探索过。根据这一假设，新的刺激激活了原始的动机回路， 对威胁的反应(防御性激活)，启动一系列特定的感觉和运动反射 信息处理和准备功能。此前的研究已经证实，观看 不愉快的图片会引起高度的注意力和记忆力，这是用经典的 定向和脑电位；当注意力选择性地指向刺激时，也会发现类似的反应 通过指令或任务相关性。在这个项目中，我们评估了反身性心理生理学和神经。 当参与者从感觉阵列中选择和处理相关刺激时的活动。在具体目标1中，我们 探索动机注意和指示注意之间的关系，确定是否指示注意 对非动机相关刺激(即中性刺激)的注意会促使类似的定向反应，神经 活动，以及在动机注意中发现的记忆表现。在具体目标#2中，我们探索 当呈现多个提示时，自然选择厌恶刺激进行处理的程度 时间或空间，假设厌恶的刺激被自然地选择用于增强处理。 在每个系列中，定向的心理生理学测量，大脑反应性的测量(即EEG，BOLD)， 并对内存性能进行评估。综上所述，这项研究将促进我们对 动机与注意/记忆之间的关系，提供了评估的方法 在临床人群中这些过程的紊乱，并阐明了指导的效用 在治疗环境中注意。

We have hypothesized that increased attention to motivationally relevant stimuli, in the absence of an instructional or task manipulation, represents a type of 'natural selective attention', in which cues that activate motivational systems naturally arouse and direct attention (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1997). In this project, the hypothesis that natural selective attention is primitively associated to defensive activation is explored. According to this hypothesis, novel stimuli activate primitive motivational circuits mediating reactions to threat (defensive activation), initiating a series of sensory and motor reflexes with specific information processing and preparatory functions. Previous studies have confirmed that viewing unpleasant pictures prompts heightened attention and memory, as measured by classical measures of orienting and brain potentials; similar responses are found when attention is selectively directed to stimuli by instruction or task-relevance. In this project, we assess reflexive psychophysiological and neural activity as participants select and process relevant stimuli from the sensory array. In Specific aim #1, we explore the relationship between motivated and instructed attention, determining whether instructed attention to non-motivationally relevant stimuli (i.e. neutral) prompts similar orienting responses, neural activity, and memory performance as found in motivated attention. In Specific Aim #2, we explore the extent to which aversive stimuli are naturally selected for processing when multiple cues are presented in time or space, with the hypothesis that aversive stimuli are naturally selected for enhanced processing. In each series, psychophysiological measures of orienting, brain measures of reactivity (i.e. EEG, BOLD), and memory performance are assessed. Taken together, this research will advance our understanding of the relationship between motivation and attention/memory, provide methods for assessing disorders of these processes in clinical populations, and illuminate the utility of instructed attention in therapeutic settings.