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The challenge of attention
Our brains are constantly flooded with sensory
information, most of which is usually irrele-
vant—the feel of our shoes, traffic sounds,
patterns on the wall, and so on. The brain’s
attentional control system allows us to filter
out these irrelevant distractions and focus
on the task at hand.
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review article, Desimone and his coauthor field that can reveal large-scale patterns of
John Duncan proposed a new view activity thought to underlie attention and
of attention which they termed ‘biased other cognitive processes. Desimone’s MEG
competition’. The brain cannot process all work is currently done in collaboration with
the sensory signals that it receives, so these colleagues at NIMH, but he hopes in the
signals must compete for neural resources. future to acquire a state-of-the-art MEG
A winner emerges either because of its scanner at MIT.
inherent salience (the brightest object, the
loudest noise) or because it is selected Applications to human disorders
through a top-down biasing influence (the “We want to know whether these basic
person we were looking for). Desimone mechanisms that we are learning about
argued that a likely origin of these biasing in monkeys also apply to humans, and we
signals was the prefrontal cortex, the also want to look for disease effects,” says
seat of higher cognitive functions and of Desimone. “There’s growing evidence that
working memory. neural synchrony may be impaired in disease
conditions like schizophrenia, epilepsy,
Graphic representation of synchronous Again, after initial skepticism, this view of autism and Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
neural activity in the visual cortex attentional bias is now generally accepted. disease. If this proves to be true, we could
Darker red signifies greater synchronization Desimone and others are now mapping out use MEG to help identify the dysfunctional
of rhythmic activity among large numbers the underlying brain pathways to understand circuits, and if we find them, it may be
of neurons. The stronger synchrony seen in how attention normally functions and how possible to restore synchrony therapeutically.”
the upper panel is associated with faster it malfunctions in brain disorders.
behavioral responses to a visual stimulus. This intervention might come in the form
All together now of new drugs, or through direct manipulation
Image: Robert Desimone In recent years Desimone’s research has using new optical and genetic technologies
moved from studying individual cells to that Desimone’s colleagues Ed Boyden and
surveying the synchronous activity of many Xue Han have helped develop. Desimone
neurons distributed across multiple brain is exploring that possibility with Han and
a dramatic difference. If the monkey was structures. When a monkey pays attention Boyden, an associate member of the
attending to the stimulus, there was a big to a stimulus, the neurons responding to McGovern Institute.
response. If the monkey was not attending, that stimulus do not merely become more
the neuron had no response, as if the active, they also coordinate their activity. Desimone is enthusiastic that neuroscience
unattended information was deleted. We By firing in synchrony with each other, can now explicitly study issues related to
could actually show where unattended things they gain a competitive edge, increasing psychology and human behavior. “When
were taken out of the visual pathway.” the likelihood that other brain regions will I entered the field, the opportunities for
detect their message. neuroscience research to impact mental
Biased competition illness were far behind where we are today.
What guides the hand on the steering wheel? “It’s like being in a crowd of people who The trajectory of my own research parallels
When Desimone first entered the field, are all talking at once,” explains Desimone. that of the entire field. It is extremely
most scientists thought that attention was “An individual voice gets lost, and if people satisfying that 38 years into my career, I am
related to the control of eye movements— simply raise their voices it just increases right in the middle of what I originally set
that an attentional ‘spotlight’ illuminates a the noise. But if a group starts chanting out to do!”
point in the visual field and direct the eyes in unison, their voices rise above the
to move there. But he realized that attention background and get noticed.”
is not necessarily directed to any particular
location; it can also be driven by higher Desimone is now studying the same
level cognitive processes, such as memories, phenomenon in humans, using a
instructions or internal plans, that are inde- non-invasive brain-imaging method called
pendent of a stimulus’s location. For example, magnetoencephalography (MEG). This
attention allows us to search for a specific technology uses sensitive detectors outside
person in a crowd even if we don’t know the head to monitor tiny magnetic fluctua-
where to look. In his most cited paper, a 1995 tions that originate from underlying brain
activity. When large populations of neurons
synchronize their activity, they produce
high-frequency oscillations in the magnetic
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berkey chair
Doris and Donald (’42SB, ’43SM) Berkey he says, “and it’s the basic design for
of Naples, Florida have donated $3,000,000 all the high-bypass jet engines that you
to endow a MIT Professorship in neuro- see today with their big fans enclosed
science, with Robert Desimone, Director on the wings.”
of the McGovern Institute, as the first
incumbent. For his last 7 years at GE, Don headed
the Energy Systems and Technical
“Our decision to endow this chair reflects Division as Vice-President, working to
our belief that a better understanding of advance technologies for solar energy, Donald and Doris Berkey
the brain will help to prevent some of the coal, nuclear and other forms of energy
suffering caused by psychiatric disease,” during President Carter’s “war on energy”
the Berkeys say. “We were delighted to years. When that focus receded during McGovern Institute and in particular
learn that Bob Desimone and the the Reagan presidency, he retired in 1982 by the focus of the new Poitras Center
McGovern Institute share this goal.” at the age of 62. Don and Doris divided for Affective Disorders Research.”
their time between Cape Cod and Florida,
For Don Berkey, attending MIT was a and have taken up golfing, boating and Finally, after speaking with MIT’s Provost,
childhood dream come true. Here he competitive duplicate bridge. They keep Rafael Reif, the Berkeys decided to create
studied mechanical engineering at the abreast of technology developments by the Don and Doris Berkey Professorship
undergraduate and masters level. “My reading the Technology Review and other naming Desimone as the first incumbent.
mind was mechanical and I wanted to publications.
understand how things work,” he explains. “I agreed that Bob Desimone was the
After receiving his SM in 1943, he joined “In thinking about how we could focus perfect choice for this professorship, given
General Electric to work on jet engines our philanthropy,” explains Don, “we his long track record of achievements in
during World War II. He rose through the decided to support research related to basic neuroscience research that is begin-
managerial ranks, becoming General mental illness because our family, like so ning to have clinical relevance to psychiatric
Manager of the Jet Engines Department many others, has been touched by these disorders,” comments Reif.
and he holds several patents in jet engine issues. We went to the Internet to learn
design, including the high by-pass turbine about research in this area, which ulti- Desimone adds that he feels profoundly
engine. GE had won a $465 million military mately led us to the McGovern Institute. grateful for the Berkeys’ generosity. “This
contract to design a more efficient engine In speaking with Bob Desimone, we were professorship will support my ongoing
for the C5A, a large military transport impressed by his experience in mental efforts to nurture a new generation of
plane that had long-range requirements. health research and by his accomplish- neuroscientists dedicated to linking basic
“Our engine was 30% more fuel efficient,” ments at the National Institute of Mental research to improving the lives of people
Health. We were also encouraged by the struggling with psychiatric disorders.”
direction he has been leading the
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scolnick prize
Davis used the conditioned learning of human psychotherapy. Davis and his Michael Davis has developed a way to combine
paradigm made famous by Pavlov’s dogs collaborators have tested this approach drug treatment with behavioral therapy in order
to trace the brain pathways that underlie in patients suffering from fear of heights, to extinguish fearful memories. He is testing this
learned fear. By studying rats, he showed with encouraging results. He is now approach on Iraq veterans with PTSD, using virtual
the importance of synaptic changes in fear conducting a larger study of Iraq veterans reality to recreate the context in which traumatic
learning and discovered that this form with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), memories were first acquired.
of learning depends on molecules known and several other trials are also underway.
Image: Michael Davis, Emory University
as NMDA receptors, acting within a brain This approach holds great promise for
structure called the amydgala. He went on treating obsessive-compulsive disorder,
to show that the loss of fearful memories, social phobia, panic disorder and many
known as extinction, is not merely the gradual other conditions.
decay of memory but rather is an active process
that also depends on NMDA receptors. The McGovern Institute awards the annual directs the Stanley Center for Psychiatric
Scolnick Prize of $50,000 to recognize Research at the Broad Institute of MIT
Drugs that enhance NMDA receptor activity an individual who has made outstanding and Harvard and is a member of the
can enhance this suppression of fearful advances in the field of neuroscience. The McGovern Institute’s governing board.
memories in rats, suggesting that they prize was endowed by Merck & Co, Inc. and
might also enhance the beneficial effects named in honor of Dr. Edward M. Scolnick,
who served as President of Merck Research
Laboratories until 2002. Scolnick now
research news
One year ago, the Martinos Imaging Center at the McGovern Institute acquired a new
state-of-the art MRI machine for imaging experimental animals. This instrument is now
fully operational, and is a shared resource not just for the McGovern Institute but also
These images illustrate the shrinkage of the cerebellum
for the entire biomedical research community at MIT and beyond. For example, Alan
and brain stem of the mice with ‘mad cow disease’ (left)
Jasanoff, an associate member of the McGovern Institute, has been collaborating with
compared to normal controls (right).
Susan Lindquist, a former director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research,
to study a mouse model of ‘mad cow disease,’ a neurodegenerative disease of humans Image: Henryk Faas, McGovern Institute
and cattle. The new machine, with its powerful 9.4T magnet, provides a detailed view Walker Jackson, Whitehead Institute
of the disease process in living mice.
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institute news
In the News
Christopher Moore published a paper in Neuron that received wide coverage in the Nancy Kanwisher’s work on face recognition
popular press, including Time, Scientific American, MSNBC and many other publications. was featured in the Wall Street Journal.
Kanwisher, who has argued that our attraction
Image: Jason Ritt, McGovern Institute
to faces may reflect an innate aspect of
brain wiring, was also cited in recent articles
in the Scientific American MIND and the
New York Times.
Tomaso Poggio’s brain-inspired computer models of human vision, which may lead
to better systems for machine vision, were featured in Scientific American and in the BBC
television documentary “Visions of the Future”. A computer model developed in Poggio’s
lab matched human performance in categorizing images after just a fleeting glimpse. New Brochure
Image: Thomas Serre, McGovern Institute
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graduate fellowships
Further information is available at: http://web.mit.edu/mcgovern/ © Copyright 2008, McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT
mcgovern institute
for brain research at mit