CNS 2024: Kia Nobre, "'Focus through Time'"

Kia Nobre, Ph.D. (Yale University), delivers the the 13th Annual Fred Kavli Distinguished Career Contributions Award at CNS 2024 in Toronto. Abstract: The ability to focus on important and interesting signals is at the core of selective attention, driving its functions for anticipating, selecting, prioritizing, and gating information to support adaptive behavior. In my lecture, I will explore three notions of how the attentional focus has shifted through time over the recent decades, highlighting discoveries and contributions from our research group. (1) From a static starting point, focus became highly dynamic. Attention functions, from proactive anticipation to action preparation, ebb and flow according to predictable and relevant timings of events. We have learned that a growing variety of temporal structures - based on associations, probabilities, rhythms, and sequences – extracted over short periods to long-term memories – can fuel the dynamics of attention. (2) Focus transcended the present situation. In addition to modulating perception and action in the moment, focus applies internally to contents available only in the mind. Through focus, mental contents are selected, prioritized, and gated dynamically to enhance relevant retrieval and guide future-oriented behavior. (3) Over time, focus has acquired more dimensions and perspectives. Embracing temporal dynamics and considering the past to future domains, the treatment of focus is breaking away from simple dichotomies. A much richer field of investigation lies ahead, allowing us to understand the nature and role of focus as a fundamental cornerstone across the gamut of cognition.