# Brain basis and neural circuitry of habit-like attention in infants and adults

> **NIH NIH F31** · OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $34,777

## Abstract

Project Summary/ Abstract
The brain has the ability to filter and prioritize a cacophony of often extraneous visual stimuli via a mechanism
called attention. Attentional control is present even at birth and is tuned throughout development. Traditionally,
attention is thought to be guided by either a goal-driven mechanism (top-down, supported by fronto-parietal
brain networks) or a stimulus-driven mechanism (bottom-up, supported by visual networks). These
mechanisms also follow distinct developmental trajectories where top-down attention reaches maturity slower
than bottom-up attention due to the delay of frontal cortex development. However, recent work has highlighted
a type of attention that does not fit within this dichotomy: one driven by prior experience (i.e., selection history)
that can be characterized as a habit. This habit-like attention demonstrates behavioral inflexibility, deficits in
attentional and basal ganglia disorders, and is present throughout the lifespan from infancy to old age. Despite
extensive behavioral research, the underlying neural circuitry is debated in adults, and unknown in infants and
children. Here, we aim to characterize the neural underpinnings of habit-like attention to elucidate how prior
experience can bias attention as early as infancy. We hypothesize that this newly identified mechanism of
attention is driven by subcortical structures. We will utilize neuroimaging—task-based (using a contextual
cueing paradigm), structural (diffusion-weighted imaging), and functional (resting state) connectivity—in both
healthy adults (18+) and infants (6—10 months). We will utilize state-of-the-art neuroimaging techniques with
specialized protocols for infants and for adults and hierarchical Bayesian modeling to ensure robust individual
estimation of neural activity to Aim 1: Identify the neural structures that support habitual attention.
Further, we will relate predict individual neural organization from structural and functional connectivity to
individual behavior using machine learning to Aim 2: Characterize the prototypical infant and adult
dynamics between cortico-striatal circuitry and relate each individual’s connectivity fingerprints to the
strength of their attentional habits a) within their age group b) between their age groups. Elucidating
the neural underpinnings of habit-like attention may allow us to better understand, identify, and treat cognitive
deficits in attention related-disorders in children, and Huntington’s and Parkinson’s diseases later in life.
Moreover, this work will characterize individual differences in attentional habits from early in development and
may reveal ways to improve attentional habits in both children and adults. This proposal has the necessary
resources and well-matched team to uncover the neural basis of habit-like attention, which has exciting
implications for early prediction and potential interventions for future attentional deficits.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10389739
- **Project number:** 1F31HD107961-01
- **Recipient organization:** OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Mary Fiona Molloy
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $34,777
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-07-14 → 2025-07-13

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10389739

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10389739, Brain basis and neural circuitry of habit-like attention in infants and adults (1F31HD107961-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-07-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10389739. Licensed CC0.

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