MAC-Brain - Developing a Multi-scale account of Attentional Control as the constraining interface between vision and action: A cross-species investigation of relevant neural circuits in the human and macaque Brain (FLAG-ERA).

Scientific objectives

Attention is the key mechanism that enables us to navigate an overwhelming sensory environment by allowing us to select the most relevant information for further scrutiny. By selecting the most (behaviorally) relevant information, attention acts as the interface between perception and action.

Importantly, a host of different attentional-control and priority signals have been described that guide this process. Yet, at present, research is fragmented across different levels of description (different methodological approaches and investigated species) and in the sense that different attentional-control and priority signals are usually investigated in isolation. The overarching scientific objective of this project is to transcend those issues by using highly standardized research protocols across species and methodologies, and by systematically investigating the unique and combined influence of different attentional-control and priority signals (related to task instructions, task relevance, probability, validity, perceptual salience, and reward). In addition, we will dissociate processes related to target selection and distractor filtering. Together, this will provide comprehensive and reliable results concerning the question whether (and to what degree) such signals operate independently vs. synergistically, and will enable an integration across different levels of scientific description.

By its nature, the present project draws a significant part of its strength (and underlying objectives) from the collaboration of the different partner units. Yet, also the individual contributions will be of significant interest by themselves. The partner at UGent will contribute to the overall development of the task protocols and then implement them in a human electroencephalography (EEG) context.

EEG has the significant advantage of excellent temporal resolution, thereby dissociating different processes in time (e.g., if different control signals arise sequentially); at the same time, through its macroscopic whole-brain scope, it also allows to investigate the progression from sensory to motoric levels. EEG is therefore perfectly positioned to investigate sensorimotor integration, as well as to dissociate target selection and distractor filtering. As such, the results obtained at UGent will make key contributions to the overall scientific objectives of obtaining a more integrated understanding of attentional control, as well as provide key advancements to the field of human attentional control as studied with EEG.