Grant: Canada Research Chairs

Dr. McDonald tracks activity in the human brain while people perform attention-demanding tasks to determine how people extract information from the environment and how paying attention improves perception of visual and auditory objects. He and his students use cutting edge signal processing techniques to reveal changing patterns of brain activity related to the allocation of attention and to the suppression of irrelevant but potentially distracting items in the environment. This work will further our understanding of the neural operations guiding attention in neurologically healthy individuals and shed light on disorders of the brain that affect people¿s attentional capabilities.