The functional neuroanatomy of emotional representation, integration, and control

情绪信息会迅速进入我们大脑的处理资源，而且往往是优先进入的。这种“情感关注”使我们能够迅速发现和应对我们环境中的危险或愉快方面。然而，纠缠于情感信息可能会造成破坏，甚至是危险的。有些情况需要冷静的精确性，即使我们被情绪上突出的线索轰炸（例如，紧急响应或创伤手术）。幸运的是，人类大脑也进化出了一些系统，这些系统可以帮助重新确定信息处理的优先级，最大限度地减少分心，并将我们的注意力集中在最具行为相关性的信息上。我的研究旨在确定人类大脑如何执行这种心理平衡行为。虽然注意力的各个方面已经得到了很好的研究，但我们才刚刚开始研究大脑如何优先考虑和控制竞争性情绪信息对行为的影响。在人类中，这项工作的重点是不同视觉线索之间的竞争。在视觉领域还有很多东西需要学习，而我们对听觉系统中的这些过程了解得更少。最近的研究结果表明，大脑中存在一定程度的专门化，用于处理不同类别的情绪信息（例如，积极与恶心的刺激）。然而，我们对相互冲突的情感信息如何在人脑中的感觉系统内部和之间优先排序或表示知之甚少。我的研究使用行为和大脑成像技术来衡量情绪上的显着信息对大脑活动和行为的影响。这些技术用于健康个体和手术或受伤后获得性脑损伤的人。这些方法提供了有关大脑区域的基本知识，这些区域参与并需要代表和控制情绪信息。因为这项研究考察了相关和不相关的情绪信息竞争流吸引我们的注意力并影响我们的判断的条件，它将应用于外科医生，紧急反应人员，空中交通管制员，飞行员和国防人员的选择和培训。

Emotional information gains rapid and often preferential access to our brain's processing resources. This "emotional attention" enables us to quickly detect and respond to dangerous or pleasant aspects of our environment. However, dwelling on emotional information can be disruptive or even dangerous. Some situations require calm precision even while we are being bombarded with emotionally salient cues (e.g., emergency response or trauma surgery). Fortunately, the human brain has also evolved systems that help reprioritize information processing, minimize distraction, and bias our attention towards the most behaviourally relevant information. My research aims to determine how the human brain performs this mental balancing act. Although aspects of attention have been well-researched, we have only begun to investigate how the brain prioritizes and controls the effects of competing emotional information on behaviour. In humans, this work has focussed on competition between different visual cues. There is still much to be learned in the visual domain, and we know even less about these processes in the auditory system. Recent findings suggest that a degree of specialization exists in the brain for processing distinct classes of emotional information (e.g., positive versus disgusting stimuli). Yet we know little about how conflicting classes of emotional information are prioritized or represented in the human brain within and between sensory systems. My research uses behavioural and brain imaging techniques to measure the impact of emotionally salient information on brain activity and behaviour. These techniques are used with healthy individuals and people with acquired brain lesions following surgical procedures or injuries. These methods provide fundamental knowledge about the brain regions involved in and necessary for representing and controlling emotional information. Because this research examines the conditions under which competing streams of relevant and irrelevant emotional information capture our attention and influence our judgement, it will have applications for the selection and training of surgeons, emergency response personnel, air-traffic controllers, pilots, and defence personnel.