Non-invasive attentional network modulation

NIH RePORTER · NIH · R56 · $763,833 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY Brain networks serve as the architecture from which cognition emerges. A wide range of neurological and psychiatric conditions are now thought to originate from deficiencies in network processing. Typical analysis of deficiency of these networks focuses on using either intrinsically motivated task differences or across-subjects variation in performance that is in turn related to networks. An alternative experimental approach is to perform neuromodulation on circuits to casually link network function to behavior. Also, a common thread of network analysis is the utilization of the temporal correlation to examine behavior. New models of how cognition emerges from network activity should consider the richness of information that is lost with correlational reductionism. In the proposed 5-year project we utilize a complex task which informs the organization of the visual attention system and combine neuroimaging and neuromodulation to interrogate the function of these networks. We seek to model cognitive performance from neuroimaging data using non-correlational methods to go beyond time-invariant correlational connectivity measures. We also seek to interrogate not one network, but multiple networks, with externally driven transcranial magnetic stimulation to isolate relative contributions of separate networks to behavioral performance. Finally, we seek to examine how neuromodulation of cognitive systems differs over multiple days of neuromodulation. Across all project aims, we intend to utilize the cognitive neuroscience of visual attention as a proxy for translation into clinical intervention on deficient networks. These studies seek to close the wide translational gap between cognitive neuroscience and clinical neuromodulation, where cognitive neuroscience studies can rapidly prototype clinical intervention.

Key facts

NIH application ID
10369082
Project number
1R56MH125995-01
Recipient
MCLEAN HOSPITAL
Principal Investigator
Mark A Halko
Activity code
R56
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2021
Award amount
$763,833
Award type
1
Project period
2021-07-01 → 2023-12-31