CRCNS: Stochastic Models of Executive Control in Monkeys and Humans

CRCNS：猴子和人类执行控制的随机模型

• 批准号: 0218507
• 负责人: Gordon Logan
• 金额: $ 75.62万
• 依托单位: Vanderbilt University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-04-01 至 2007-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0218507&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CRCNS; Stochastic; Models; Executive; Control

Stochastic Models of Executive Control in Monkeys and HumansAbstractWith National Science Foundation support, Drs. Logan, Palmeri, and Schall will conduct a three-year investigation of the executive control processes that underlie flexible responding in monkeys and humans. It is the hallmark of primate intelligence to be able to respond flexibly, focusing on different aspects of the same situation to produce arbitrary responses that are appropriate to current goals. The goal of this project is to specify executive processes computationally and neurally, focusing on the control of attention, categorization, and response preparation. To accomplish this goal, monkeys and humans will perform tasks that require them to make saccadic eye movements toward or away from targets that appear in displays of distractors. Experimental variables will be manipulated to selectively influence attention to the targets, categorization of targets and distractors, and preparation of eye movement responses. The timing and accuracy of eye movements will be recorded in both humans and monkeys performing the task, and the activity of ensembles of neurons in the frontal lobes of monkeys will be recorded while they are performing the task. The overt eye movement behavior of humans and monkeys and the neural activity of monkeys will be described in terms of a mathematically precise computational theory with three distinct components, as follows. (1) An attention component that selects behaviorally-relevant targets from a field of distractors; (2) a categorization component that selects goal-relevant interpretations of target stimuli; and (3) a response preparation component that selects responses necessary to accomplish the goals. The theory provides a common language that makes it possible to relate the overt behavior of humans to the overt behavior of monkeys and to relate the overt behavior of monkeys to the neural activity that underlies it.The research is significant in three respects. First, it will advance understanding of executive control processes by specifying them concretely in terms of computational and neural processes. Executive control processes are critical in a variety of contexts in the workplace, educational settings, and mental health settings that require people to deal with competing goals and switch between various activities, including the workplace, education, and mental health. The research will have implications for human factors, ergonomics, design of training programs in education and industry, and diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. Second, the research will advance understanding of neural processes by providing linking propositions that relate single-cell behavior to psychological states of the cognitive processes that the single cells implement. Single-cell behavior makes sense only in the context of the behavior it underlies, and the research will provide that relation. Third, the research will advance understanding of the computations that underlie cognitive processes of attention, categorization, and response preparation. Computational models of these processes are limited by an inability to "open the black box" and observe the inner brain processes that underlie them. Computational models with very different internal processes often predict the same overt behavior. The research will identify cognitive processes with neural behavior, allowing distinctions between these computational models of human and monkey cognition.

猴子和人类执行控制的随机模型摘要在国家科学基金会的支持下，Logan、Palmeri和Schall博士将对猴子和人类灵活反应背后的执行控制过程进行为期三年的调查。灵长类智能的标志是能够灵活地做出反应，专注于同一情况的不同方面，以产生适合当前目标的任意反应。这个项目的目标是从计算和神经上指定执行过程，重点是注意力、分类和反应准备的控制。为了实现这一目标，猴子和人类将执行一些任务，要求它们做出眼跳般的眼球运动，朝向或远离分心物显示中出现的目标。实验变量将被操纵，以选择性地影响对目标的注意力，目标和干扰物的分类，以及眼动反应的准备。在执行这项任务的人类和猴子身上，眼睛运动的时间和准确性都将被记录下来，猴子在执行任务时，额叶神经元的整体活动也将被记录下来。人类和猴子的显性眼球运动行为以及猴子的神经活动将根据数学精确计算理论进行描述，该理论包括三个不同的组成部分，如下所示。(1)从一系列干扰物中选择与行为相关的目标的注意部分；(2)选择目标刺激的与目标相关的解释的分类部分；以及(3)选择完成目标所必需的反应的反应准备部分。该理论提供了一种共同语言，使人们有可能将人类的公开行为与猴子的公开行为联系起来，并将猴子的公开行为与其背后的神经活动联系起来。这项研究在三个方面具有重要意义。首先，它将通过在计算和神经过程方面具体规定执行控制过程来促进对执行控制过程的理解。执行控制过程在工作场所、教育环境和心理健康环境中的各种环境中至关重要，这些环境要求人们处理相互竞争的目标并在各种活动之间切换，包括工作场所、教育和心理健康。这项研究将对人类因素、人体工程学、教育和工业培训计划的设计以及精神障碍的诊断和治疗产生影响。其次，这项研究将通过提供将单细胞行为与单细胞执行的认知过程的心理状态联系起来的命题来促进对神经过程的理解。单细胞行为只有在它所依据的行为的背景下才有意义，研究将提供这种联系。第三，这项研究将促进对作为注意、分类和反应准备认知过程基础的计算的理解。这些过程的计算模型受到无法“打开黑匣子”和观察其背后的大脑内部过程的限制。内部过程非常不同的计算模型通常预测相同的公开行为。这项研究将把认知过程与神经行为联系起来，将人类和猴子认知的这些计算模型区分开来。