Spatial and Temporal Mechanisms of Affect-Biased Attention

众所周知，我们不断过滤传入的感官信息，有选择地将注意力分配到对我们重要的信息上，并抑制分散注意力或不相关的信息（回顾见Cosmelli， 2009）。最近的证据进一步表明，我们调整我们的注意力过滤器，以更好地感知环境中情感上重要的方面（Todd, Cunningham et al., 2012），并以相对于世俗刺激的更高感知生动度来体验它们（Todd, Talmi et al., 2012）。然而，我们目前对人类情感偏见注意的理解，由于缺乏对世界情感重要方面的选择性注意所涉及的基本神经过程的理解而受到阻碍。本研究的目的是为了更好地理解选择性注意和时间感知两个特定认知过程中的情感偏见。拟议的研究计划将结合电生理学和基因分型的目标多态性，或常见的遗传变异，以探索特定的神经化学物质对人类有效驱动的选择性注意的不同神经元机制的影响。它的目的是测试这些神经化学物质的可用性的总体预测，作为一个人的基因型索引，影响不同神经机制（例如，偏见竞争）所提供的情感偏见注意的不同方面。利用人类电生理学的基因分型工具，可以为神经化学物质对情感偏见注意的电生理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.