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<div class="">PhD position at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour:</div>
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Watch out! Competition between internal and external attention states in</div>
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brain and behavior</div>
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Supervisors: Eric Maris & Marius Peelen</div>
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Summary:</div>
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Attention can be directed externally (to the outside world) or internally (to representations in the mind).</div>
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While this distinction features prominently in current models of attention, there are surprisingly few</div>
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empirical studies directly investigating this distinction. This project provides a comprehensive</div>
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investigation of the external-internal attention distinction, its neurophysiological characteristics, and its</div>
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relation to behavior. Using advanced analysis of both ongoing and evoked EEG/MEG data we will</div>
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classify spontaneous brain states as corresponding to external versus internal attention states. We</div>
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will link these brain states to perceptual performance in naturalistic object recognition tasks, testing</div>
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the hypothesis that an external attention state leads to better perceptual performance. In addition, we</div>
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will induce attention states by having participants perform externally and internally directed tasks.</div>
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Finally, we will test the hypothesis that shifting gaze, even in complete darkness, directs attention</div>
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externally, leading to better perceptual performance. Results of these studies will: (1) provide</div>
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empirical evidence for the proposed distinction between external and internal attention, (2) provide a</div>
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neurophysiological characterization of these attention states, and (3) shed light on the feasibility to</div>
<div class=""><span class="" style="font-size: 10px;">improve perceptual performance by biasing attention towards the external state.</span> </div>
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<div class="">Contact: <a href="mailto:e.maris@donders.ru.nl" class="">e.maris@donders.ru.nl</a> or <a href="mailto:m.peelen@donders.ru.nl" class="">m.peelen@donders.ru.nl</a></div>
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<font face="Calibri" class=""><span style="font-size: 11px;" class="">Eric Maris | Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour & Faculty of Social Sciences | Radboud University | PO Box 9104, 6500 HE Nijmegen | (024) 3612651 | <a href="http://www.ru.nl" class="">www.ru.nl</a><br class="">
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