We’re delighted to announce that the journal “Cortex” has agreed to host a special issue based around the Symposium on “Cognitive & Motor Processes in Visual Attention” we hosted in Durham earlier this year! The SI will be edited by Dan, Soazig, Stefan and Thomas and is a really exciting opportunity to share work on the relationship between cognition and motor control. The call for papers and SI description is below and is available on the Cortex website . The submission portal will open on 15th February and close on 15th July.
The ability to orient attention in space is fundamental to our ability to successfully interact with our environment, as demonstrated by the profound problems experienced by patients with neuropsychological deficits of attention. Understanding the mechanisms of attentional orienting has been central question in cognitive neuropsychology, and although much progress has been made some important questions remain unanswered. For example, there is broad agreement that there is some relationship between the motor processes involved in the control of eye-movements and the cognitive processes involved in attentional selection. However, the precise nature of this relationship remains controversial, with some scholars arguing for an almost complete functional overlap, others arguing for complete functional dissociation and a variety of views between these poles. Furthermore, the interplay between visuospatial working memory, visuospatial attention and oculomotor control is not well understood, despite great progress in understanding the neural and cognitive mechanisms of each individual processes. Finally, it is not clear to what extent the theoretical advances in understanding the interactions between spatial attention and oculomotor control can be used inform the development of new therapies for neuropsychological disorders such as hemianopia and neglect. This special issue will bring together empirical and review articles that offer new insights into the functional role of attentional and motor systems in cognitive processes, and/or seek to apply the principles that govern the relationship between attention, memory and motor control to solving applied questions relating to the clinical diagnosis and rehabilitation of neuropsychological disorders.
I first heard about PSP as a graduate student when I read a paper describing an unusual and devastating disease characterised by paralysis of the eyes. The paper reported a striking result: people with PSP had a problem moving attention that was not experienced by people with Parkinson’s disease. At the time I was doing my doctoral research and the result seemed to have profound implications for our theoretical understanding of attention. I didn’t realise at this time was that it might also be important for the purposes of diagnosis. I was keen to explore how PSP affected attention further, but unfortunately due to the rarity of the condition we had no luck finding participants. At this point end I moved on to working with stroke survivors. However, as my career progressed I often thought about the condition, and one day happened to mention it to Dr Neil Archibald, consultant neurologist at James Cook University Hospital. He had a particular interest in PSP and was keen to collaborate. He put me in touch with the PSP Association, and together we ran a workshop with patients, carers, clinicians and academics to generate research ideas.