Spatial and Temporal Mechanisms of Affect-Biased Attention

众所周知，我们不断地过滤传入的感觉信息，有选择地将注意力分配到对我们重要的事情上，并抑制分散注意力或无关的信息(参见Cosmelli，2009)。最近的证据进一步表明，我们调整我们的注意过滤器，以更好地感知环境中情感上的重要方面(Todd，Cunningham等人，2012年)，并以相对于普通刺激更高的知觉生动来体验它们(Todd，Talmi等人，2012)。然而，我们目前对人类情感偏向注意的理解受到了阻碍，因为我们缺乏对选择性注意世界重要方面的基本神经过程的理解。本研究的目的是更好地理解选择性注意和时间知觉这两个特定认知过程中的情感偏向。拟议的研究计划将把电生理学与基因分型相结合，以定向多态或常见的遗传变异，以探索特定神经化学物质对人类情感驱动的选择性注意潜在的不同神经机制的影响。它的目的是测试总体预测，即每种神经化学物质的可获得性，如以个体的基因为索引，影响不同神经机制(例如，有偏见的竞争)辅助的情感偏向注意力的不同方面。在人类中使用基因分型和电生理学的工具，可以提供一个关键的窗口，了解神经化学物质对情感偏向注意的电生理机制的影响，从而更好地理解人类认知的这一基本方面，包括对世界情感重要方面的选择性感知。

It is well known that we continuously filter incoming sensory information, selectively allocating attention to what is important to us and suppressing distracting or irrelevant information (for review see Cosmelli, 2009). Recent evidence has further shown that we tune our attentional filters to better perceive emotionally important aspects of the environment (Todd, Cunningham et al., 2012),and experience them with a heightened perceptual vividness relative to mundane stimuli (Todd, Talmi et al., 2012). Yet our current understanding of affectively biased attention in humans is hampered by lack of understanding of the basic neural processes involved in selective attention toward affectively significant aspects of the world. The goal of the present study is to better understand affective biases in two specific cognitive processes: selective attention and time perception. The proposed research program will combine electrophysiology with genotyping for targeted polymorphisms, or common genetic variations, to probe the influence of specific neurochemicals on distinct neuronal mechanisms underlying affectively driven selective attention in humans. It aims to test the overall predictions that the availability of each of these neurochemicals, as indexed by an individual’s genotype, influences distinct aspects of affectively biased attention subserved by distinct neural mechanisms (e.g., biased competition). Using the tools of genotyping with electrophysiology in humans can provide a crucial window into the influence of neurochemicals on electrophysiological mechanisms of affectively biased attention, allowing to better understand this fundamental aspect of human cognition involving selective perception of emotionally important aspects of the world.