There are two major brain systems that prioritise the processing of information needed to guide human action: a selective attention system that preferentially facilitates processing of task-relevant information and suppresses processing of task-irrelevant information, and an emotion system that interprets information in terms of current and future goals. Because coordination between these systems is essential for normal human function, it is important to understand how they interact. The long-term objective of the proposed research is to understand the influence of selective attention on emotion. Based on exciting new findings and substantial pilot data, the research will use an integrated, multidisciplinary approach and shared facilities to undertake behavioural (Raymond, Shapiro), electrophysiological (Eimer), neuro-imaging (Nobre), and neural network modelling (Taylor) research directed at probing how these systems interact to control behaviour. The approach will be to carefully control, manipulate, and measure an observer's attentional state during exposure to stimuli (exposure phase), and then, later, require a simple emotional response to these and other novel (control) stimuli (test phase). Human and neural network model behaviour will be correlated with electrophysiological and imaging data obtained during both phases. This general approach will enable us to identify brain states active at encoding uder various attentional conditions and then to determine if these "signatures" can predict subsequent behaviour and brain activation patterns during emotional tasks. A significant proportion of the work will be directed at the specific issue of emotional appraisal and interpretation of human faces. Specific objectives of the proposed research are:

1. To determine the neural mechanisms underpinning the modulatory effect of attention on emotional responses to (a) novel abstract stimuli, (b) non-face objects, and (c) faces.

2. To elaborate current cognitive theory that attention modulates affective responses by utilizing working memory to reactivate previously encoded facilitatory vs. inhibitory modes of processing.

3. To measure how the allocation of full, partial, or no attention during the exposure phase (a) determines emotional response to abstract and non-face object stimuli, and (b) alters structural processing, identification, emotional expression interpretation, and affective evaluation of faces.

4. To elaborate existing neural network models to account for the effects of attention to face and non-face stimuli on their subsequent emotional evaluation.

5. To transfer and disseminate skills across labs, develop and integrative approach, and expose the young researchers to whom funding is requested to the diverse technologies and tools encompassed here.