Nov. 15, 2010, Attention that Doesn’t Stop
Associate Professor Jill McGaughy was awarded a two-year grant of $399,000 from National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the ability of normal adolescents to learn to focus their attention on one task and then shift their attention to another task. McGaughy and her research team will use a rodent model to investigate the parts of the brain that control an adolescent’s ability to stop engaging in activities that no longer yield positive consequences. McGaughy expects this research to lead to insights about how to treat conditions such as poor impulse control and an inability to redirect attention—symptoms characteristic of attention deficit disorder (ADHD).