| Animal research has indicated an important role for the noradrenergic system in the regulation of behavorial state and attention. This work has led to the theory that the noradrenergic system is critical for the facilitation of responses to motivationally significant stimuli. Despite this knowledge, there have been very few empirical studies of noradrenergic function in humans, probably in part because of the methodological challenges involved. The goal of this project is to develop measures and procedures to study the activation dynamics of the human noradrenergic system, and to characterize the functional consequences of these activation dynamics for human attention and performance. We will pursue this goal using a combination of various methods, including brain imaging techniques (EEG/fMRI), psychopharmacological manipulations, and pupillometry |
