Perceiving a stable world through the predictive allocation of attention

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Heiner Deubel, since 11/2017
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology ; Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
• Term: from 2015 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 280354342

In order to survive in our complex environment, the perceptual system has evolved to deal with the consequences of our own movements. In particular, evolution has given us the ability to perceive our world as stable and continuous despite frequently made eye, head or body movements that drastically change the projections of external objects positions on our sensory receptors (e.g. eyes, ears). Animal studies have shown that in some cortical and sub-cortical areas, those involved in attention and saccade control, neurons are able to anticipate the consequences that voluntary eye movements have on their visual input. These neurons predict how the world will look after a saccade by remapping the location of each attended object to the place it will occupy following a saccade. Our previous research has allowed us to model remapping as an attentional process and has led to the development of efficient psychophysical methods to study the allocation of attention at the time of a saccade. Using these tools, as well as state-of-the-art equipment, the first series of studies aim to demonstrate the mandatory involvement of visual attention in our ability to track locations across a saccade. In the second series of studies we will investigate whether our remapping model also applies to other sensory modalities (audition) and to other types of body movements (head turns). Finally, in the third series of studies, we will use EEG methods to examine the neural basis for the role of visual attention in remapping. These studies will challenge established theories regarding the link between perception and action, respond to current debates concerning the role of attention for remapping and space constancy, and contribute to cognitive theories of motor and perceptual control mechanisms.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France, USA
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. David Aagten-Murphy, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Patrick Cavanagh, Ph.D.; Dr. Donatas Jonikaitis; Professor Dr. Martin Rolfs
• Ehemaliger Antragsteller: Dr. Martin Szinte, Ph.D., until 10/2017