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Funded Grants

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Neural Basis Underlying the Transition Between Attention States

Project Overview

How do we seamlessly transition between reading a novel and reminiscing our last vacation before the pandemic? The ability to flexibly shift our attention between the external environment (i.e. reading a novel) and our inner world (i.e. reminiscing our last vacation) is crucial for optimal performance of activities in our daily lives. The proposed project will determine how the brain controls this seamless transition between attention states using brain recordings from neurosurgical patients who have electrodes implanted in their brains as part of their clinical procedure. We will then use direct brain stimulation to determine whether we can improve individuals’ ability to gain control over the transition into external and internal attention states. As we will only examine the healthy parts of the patients’ brains, our results will be derived from brain recordings that reflect healthy neural activity. This research will reveal how the brain regulates this fundamental human behavior of shifting between external and internal attention, a ubiquitous process that a healthy mind regularly engages in throughout the day. It will also provide insight into interventions for enhancing this capacity in healthy individuals, and combating its deterioration in developmental, psychiatric, and neurological disorders.

Principal Investigator

Julia Kam , University of Calgary

Project Ongoing

Neural Basis Underlying the Transition Between Attention States

  • Program Type

    Capacity building grants

  • Area of research

    Central Nervous System

  • Disease Area

    Other

  • Competition

    Future Leaders in Canadian Brain Research

  • Province

    Alberta

  • Start Date

    2021

  • Total Grant Amount

    $100,000

  • Health Canada Contribution

    $50,000

Contact Us

1200 McGill College Avenue
Suite 1600, Montreal, Quebec
H3B 4G7

+1 (514) 989-2989 info@braincanada.ca

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Territorial acknowledgement

The offices of Brain Canada Foundation are located on the traditional, ancestral territory of the Kanien'kehá:ka Peoples, a place which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst nations. We honour and pay respect to elders past, present and emerging, and dedicate ourselves to moving forward in the spirit of partnership, collaboration, and reconciliation. In our work, we focus our efforts on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, particularly those that pertain to improving health for Indigenous Peoples and that focus on advancing our own learning on Indigenous issues.

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Registration number: 89105 2094 RR0001

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