Changes-of mind in target selection for action

社会、行为和经济科学局提供博士后研究奖学金，为新近毕业的博士毕业生提供获得额外培训的机会，在知名科学家的赞助下获得研究经验，并在本科生和研究生培训之外拓宽他们的科学视野。博士后奖学金的进一步设计是为了帮助新科学家引导他们的研究努力跨越传统的学科界限，并利用独特的研究资源、地点和设施，包括在国外。这一博士后奖学金支持一位正在崛起的交叉学科领域的科学家，该领域交叉行为科学、计算建模和功能磁共振成像(FMRI)，专注于决策过程。决策是日常生活中无处不在的一部分：在某些情况下，决策是不可逆转的，而在另一些情况下，最初的选择可以通过改变主意来改变。例如，当从书架上取下一本书时，一开始可能会伸手去拿错误的书名，然后调整伸手的方向，以选择所需的选项。这样的决定需要几个大脑系统之间的精确协调，以分配注意力，选择行动方案，并执行手和眼睛的运动。重要的是，最近的研究表明，认知与感知和行动紧密结合。具体地说，支持眼睛和手运动执行的运动区也关键地参与决策；然而，尽管决策的神经网络具有相对较好的特征，但人们对大脑如何支持行动决定执行后的在线行为变化知之甚少。这项建议旨在研究大脑系统在目标选择过程中支持不断修改决策的能力，并确定对注意力资源的竞争如何影响这一过程。这个项目的结果将促进我们对动作执行过程中快速、灵活决策背后的大脑结构和神经信息流的理解。这对于告知创伤性脑损伤、中风和视神经共济失调等疾病造成的损害以及设计更先进的神经假体以更好地在动态的现实生活环境中为截肢者服务具有重要意义。本研究的目标是通过研究多个大脑系统如何相互作用来支持目标选择过程中的思维变化，从而提供对人类决策的更全面的理解。该提案将使用包括行为、脑电(EEG)、功能磁共振成像(FMRI)和高级计算建模技术在内的多方面方法，研究在执行动作时支持快速决策调整的神经基础。具体地说，目标选择过程中空间注意力的分配如何影响思维的改变？此外，在目标选择的思维变化过程中，高级皮质区域与眼睛和手相关运动区之间的信息流是什么性质？这些结果将代表着朝着更全面地理解在自然主义环境下复杂的人类决策所涉及的大脑机制迈出了重要的一步。这一提议也得到了NSF EPSCoR的支持。

The Directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences offers postdoctoral research fellowships to provide opportunities for recent doctoral graduates to obtain additional training, to gain research experience under the sponsorship of established scientists, and to broaden their scientific horizons beyond their undergraduate and graduate training. Postdoctoral fellowships are further designed to assist new scientists to direct their research efforts across traditional disciplinary lines and to avail themselves of unique research resources, sites, and facilities, including at foreign locations. This postdoctoral fellowship supports a rising scientist in the interdisciplinary area overlapping behavioral science, computational modeling and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), focusing on the process of decision making. Decision-making is a pervasive part of everyday life: in some cases, decisions are irreversible and in others an initial choice can be altered by a change of mind. For instance, when fetching a book off the shelf, one may initially reach toward the wrong title and later adjust the course of their reach in favor of the desired option. Such decisions require precise coordination between several brain systems to allocate attention, select a course of action, and execute hand and eye movements. Importantly, recent research demonstrates that cognition is tightly integrated with perception and action. Specifically, motor areas supporting the execution of eye and hand movements are also critically involved in decision-making; however, while the neural networks of decision-making are relatively well characterized, little is known about how the brain supports online changes to behavior after a decision to act has been executed. This proposal aims to investigate the brain systems supporting the ability to continuously modify decisions during target selection and determine how competition for attentional resources impacts this process. The results of this project will advance our understanding of the brain structures and neural information flow underlying rapid, flexible decision-making during action execution. This has important implications for informing impairments caused by disorders such as traumatic brain injury, stroke, and optic ataxia and the design of more advanced neural prosthetics to better serve amputees in dynamic, real-life settings.The goal of this research is to provide a more comprehensive understanding of human decision-making by examining how multiple brain systems interact to support changes of mind during target selection. Using a multi-faceted approach including behavioral, electroencephalography (EEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and advanced computational modeling techniques, this proposal will investigate the neural substrates that support rapid decision adjustments when executing actions. Specifically, how does the allocation of spatial attention during target selection impact change of mind? Moreover, what is the nature of information flow between higher-order cortical regions and eye- and hand-related motor areas during changes of mind during target selection? These results will represent an important step toward a more complete understanding of the brain mechanisms involved in complex human decision-making in naturalistic settings. This proposal is also supported by the NSF EPSCoR.