Spatial and Temporal Mechanisms of Affect-Biased Attention

众所周知，我们不断地过滤传入的感官信息，选择性地将注意力分配到对我们重要的东西上，并抑制分散注意力或不相关的信息（参见Cosmeli，2009）。最近的证据进一步表明，我们调整我们的注意力过滤器，以更好地感知环境的情感重要方面（托德，坎宁安等人，2012），并以相对于普通刺激的增强的感知生动性体验它们（托德，塔尔米等人，2012年）。然而，我们目前对人类情感偏见注意力的理解受到了阻碍，因为我们对选择性注意力的基本神经过程缺乏了解。本研究的目的是更好地理解两个特定的认知过程中的情感偏差：选择性注意和时间知觉。拟议中的研究计划将结合联合收割机电生理学与基因分型的目标多态性，或共同的遗传变异，以探讨特定的神经化学物质对不同的神经元机制的影响，在人类情感驱动的选择性注意。它的目的是测试整体预测，即这些神经化学物质中的每一种的可用性，如由个体的基因型索引的，影响由不同的神经机制（例如，有偏见的竞争）。在人类中使用基因分型与电生理学的工具可以为神经化学物质对情感偏见注意力的电生理学机制的影响提供一个重要的窗口，从而更好地理解人类认知的这个基本方面，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.