# Causal brain mechanisms of value-based attentional capture in depression

> **NIH VA IK2** · VETERANS ADMIN PALO ALTO HEALTH CARE SYS · 2023 · —

## Abstract

This is a Veteran's Administration Career Development Award 2 proposal for Colleen Mills-Finnerty, Ph.D.,
entitled “Causal brain mechanisms of value-based attentional capture in depression.” The goal of this project is
to understand causal brain circuit mechanisms underlying diminished attentional sensitivity to reward in
veterans with depression using computational modeling, neuroimaging, and transcranial magnetic stimulation
(TMS). This is an important area for study because although depression is a leading cause of disability
worldwide, current treatments have limited efficacy. Additionally, TMS is an FDA-approved treatment for
depression, but the mechanism by which it works to remediate symptoms remains unclear. Therefore, better
understanding of the circuit abnormalities that give rise to behavioral abnormalities and symptoms of
depression is needed to spurn development of targeted, neurobiologically informed TMS interventions.
Attentional sensitivity to reward is well-studied in the field of visual perception. Stimuli associated with rewards
(e.g. money, positive social feedback) capture attention (i.e., serve as a distraction) during tasks even when
reward value is not relevant to performance, an attentional bias called value-based attentional capture (VBAC).
More limited evidence suggests that the VBAC is behaviorally absent in patients with depression; however no
studies have addressed the biological underpinnings causal to this process. Understanding VBAC dysfunction
in depression is potentially a critical missing link between reduced reward sensitivity and reward learning
deficits widely observed in depression, and therefore the central hypothesis to be tested is that insensitivity to
reward stimuli in depression is related to failures of circuit mechanisms underlying integration of attention and
subjective value. The current study aims to 1) computationally model VBAC response during neuroimaging in
healthy veterans; 2) computationally model VBAC deficits in veterans with depression during neuroimaging; 3)
use brain stimulation to probe the causal circuit mechanisms responsible for VBAC in healthy veterans, to
model failures of this circuitry in depression. This CDA2 award would allow Dr. Mills-Finnerty to gain
proficiency in 1) computational approaches to modeling behavior and brain function; 2) use of brain stimulation
as a causal intervention to change behavior and understand brain circuit dysfunction in psychiatric populations;
3) clinical research assessment of depression symptoms; and 4) manuscript/grant writing, professional
development, and responsible conduct of research. Training and research for the project will be conducted at
both the VA Palo Alto and Stanford University, which offer excellent intellectual and physical resources to
complete the proposed work. The PI plans to gain proficiency in proposal domains through: 1) tutorials and
meetings with mentors; 2) intensive workshops on modeling information flow within neur...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10657318
- **Project number:** 5IK2CX001916-04
- **Recipient organization:** VETERANS ADMIN PALO ALTO HEALTH CARE SYS
- **Principal Investigator:** Colleen Mills-Finnerty
- **Activity code:** IK2 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-04-01 → 2024-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10657318

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10657318, Causal brain mechanisms of value-based attentional capture in depression (5IK2CX001916-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10657318. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*