Understanding and Building Overall Cognitive Capability through Attention Control (22-000002428)
Abstract
Attention control refers to the ability to maintain focus on task-relevant information while resisting distraction and interferencefrom irrelevant thoughts and events. Individual differences in attention control predict academic achievement, job performance, emotion regulation, resistance to post-traumatic stress disorder, multitasking, and complex problem solving. Despite its importance, the psychological and neurological mechanisms of attention control are not well understood. The research proposed here will make a significant advance beyond understanding what individual differences in attention control predict and allow us to build a comprehensivemodel of why individuals differ in the ability to control attention in the first place. In addition to providing firm theoretical foundations grounded in neuroscience, this research will also lead to more promising avenues for enhancing attention through trainingand mitigating deficits due to sleep deprivation and stress, with potentialfar-reaching effects on complex cognition. Our team of world-leading scientists will collaborate with the Naval Research Lab, the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute, and a parallel team in Australia.The Engle Lab at Georgia Tech will explore the nature of attention control as a cognitive construct. We will assess the latent structure of executive functions and their relationship to Navy-relevant performance. We will identify the cognitive and physiological mechanisms that support attention using a combination of behavioral performance measures, pupillometry, and high-frequency heart rate variability monitoring.The Miller Lab at MIT will examine and manipulate neural correlates of attention control in non-human primates. We will determine how these neural dynamics track fluctuations of attention control and use closed-loop electrical stimulation technology to harness them. Our ultimate goal is a non-invasive, closed-loop stimulation for humans that (along with training) will strengthen attention control.The Vogel and Rosenberg Labs at the University of Chicago will use behavioral, pupillometry, EEG, and fMRI techniques to understand the waxing and waning of attention control. EEG and fMRI signatures will allow us to detect, classify, and potentially mitigate lapses before an operator even realizes they are distracted. Understanding how, when, and why attention fluctuates will inform a targeted training approach to prevent lapses and improve performance. The Fenn Lab at Michigan State University will investigate how sleep deprivation and stress impact attention control, as these challenge factors characterize the Navy operational environment. The work will test whether interventions such as caffeine and exposure to blue-wavelength light combat deficits in attention control due to sleep deprivation, and whether extensive training can reduce deficits due to sleep deprivation. The Redick Lab at Purdue will optimize attention control training to facilitate transfer to unpracticed real-world situations where attention control is required. We are proposing two, large-scale, randomized, multi-session interventions to address attention control training and transfer of skill, following best practices in the cognitive training literature.Researchers in Australia will undertake parallel projects that mesh with and complement the work of the US team. The UNSW Sydney team will model the interactive relationships between learning, motivation, attention control, and decision making. The University of Queensland team will use real-time neurofeedback to alert operators to impending lapses and use non-invasive brain stimulation paired with cognitive training to upregulate neural activity in regions of the prefrontal cortex responsible for attention control. Approved for public release
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 11, 2023
- Source ID
- N000142312768
Entities
People
- Randall Engle
Organizations
- Georgia Tech Research Corporation
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy