{"674140":{"#nid":"674140","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Haider Lab Paying Close Attention With Second BRAIN Award","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe old one-liner, \u201che\u2019s too broke to pay attention,\u201d is a fun play on words, but it also has a grain of grim neurological truth.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBecause attention does not come easily. The capability, for example, to visually pay attention to one thing and extract critical information while tuning out all else is a complex process involving the work of neurons and circuits across the brain.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cUnfortunately, we don\u2019t know a lot about these underlying mechanisms of attention,\u201d said \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/neuro.gatech.edu\/user\/1142\u0022\u003EBilal Haider\u003C\/a\u003E, associate professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/bme.gatech.edu\/bme\/\u0022\u003EWallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E at Georgia Tech and Emory University. \u201cAnd that partly explains why we lack effective treatments for various neurological conditions characterized by deficits in attention, and sensory perception.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Haider lab is working to close that critical information gap, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is supporting the effort through the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative Award. The three-year, $1.4 million award is administered through the NIH\u2019s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThis is Haider\u2019s second BRAIN Initiative award, and it is funding a project entitled, \u201cTracking Flow of Attention in Visual Circuits Across the Brain,\u201d which is basically a sequel to the lab\u2019s first BRAIN project.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOn the first grant, our focus was on the primary visual cortex in the mouse,\u201d said Haider, whose lab combined electrophysiological, optical, and computational techniques, with unprecedented detail, in transgenic mice that performed visual attention tasks.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe idea was, if they could study and measure higher cognitive functions in a simpler organism they could have a great tool for understanding the mechanisms of attention.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe current grant will let us go beyond the primary cortex to multiple brain areas, working our way down the chain, tracking attention,\u201d Haider said. \u201cWe want to discover how and where these signals of attention are organized and routed. How is it all coordinated and what brain areas need to be involved? Ultimately, long term, the goal is to understand how we can improve attention, and remedy attention deficits in human beings.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ENeuro Next Initiative affiliate and Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering Associate Professor\u0026nbsp;Bilal Haider was recently awarded over $1 million by NIH to study visual attention \u2014 which could lead to new ways to boost attention and remedy attention deficits.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"BME researcher\u0027s new BRAIN Initiative award could help find new ways to boost attention and remedy attention deficits."}],"uid":"35575","created_gmt":"2024-04-10 20:33:47","changed_gmt":"2024-04-10 20:36:52","author":"adavidson38","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2024-02-02T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2024-02-02T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"673681":{"id":"673681","type":"image","title":"Bilal-Haider-lab-180316AR109-DEV-t.jpg","body":"\u003Cp\u003EBilal Haider in his lab.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","created":"1712781234","gmt_created":"2024-04-10 20:33:54","changed":"1712781234","gmt_changed":"2024-04-10 20:33:54","alt":"Bilal Haider in his lab.","file":{"fid":"257105","name":"Bilal-Haider-lab-180316AR109-DEV-t.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/04\/10\/Bilal-Haider-lab-180316AR109-DEV-t.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/04\/10\/Bilal-Haider-lab-180316AR109-DEV-t.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":62706,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2024\/04\/10\/Bilal-Haider-lab-180316AR109-DEV-t.jpg?itok=3OOqZ765"}}},"media_ids":["673681"],"groups":[{"id":"66220","name":"Neuro"}],"categories":[{"id":"138","name":"Biotechnology, Health, Bioengineering, Genetics"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"}],"keywords":[{"id":"172970","name":"go-neuro"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"},{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCommunications\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nWallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}