# Non-invasive attentional network modulation

> **NIH NIH R56** · MCLEAN HOSPITAL · 2021 · $763,833

## 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 organization:** MCLEAN HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Mark A Halko
- **Activity code:** R56 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $763,833
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-07-01 → 2023-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10369082

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10369082, Non-invasive attentional network modulation (1R56MH125995-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10369082. Licensed CC0.

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