Projekt

Attention is the ability to focus the brain's processing resources on- to relevant sensory information. This highly adaptive and dynamic abi- lity allows us to perceive attended aspects with enormous precision without being overwhelmed by irrelevant information. The goal of the proposed project is to understand the neural mechanisms of attentional influences on visual information processing. The applicants will com- bine recordings from neurons in the cortex of awake monkeys performing attentional tasks and computational modeling of the mechanisms of attention. The model system will be the response of networks of di- rection-selective neurons to multi-directional "transparent" motion stimuli. By employing multi-electrode techniques and by recording from frontal and sensory cortex simultaneously the group aims to investi- gate (1) the dynamics of attentional modulation, (2) the sensory and attentional influences on the perceptual strength of attended stimuli, (3) the influence of attention on not just single neurons but whole networks of neurons, and (4) the interaction between neurons in such networks.

• Prof. Dr. Stefan Treue

  Deutsches Primatenzentrum GmbH
  Leibniz-Institut für Primatenforschung
  Göttingen
  

• Prof. Dr. Xiao-Jing Wang

  Yale University
  School of Medicine
  Dept. of Neurobiology and
  Kavli Institute for Neuroscience
  New Haven, CT 06520-8001
  USA