Changes-of mind in target selection for action

社会、行为和经济科学理事会提供博士后研究金，为最近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，并在本科和研究生培训之外拓宽他们的科学视野。博士后奖学金还旨在帮助新的科学家指导他们的研究工作，跨越传统的学科领域，并利用独特的研究资源，地点和设施，包括在国外的地点。这个博士后奖学金支持交叉学科领域的新兴科学家重叠行为科学，计算建模和功能性磁共振成像（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，决定是不可逆转的，而在另一些情况下，最初的选择可能会因思想的改变而改变。例如，当从书架上取书时，一开始可能会取错书名，然后调整其取书过程以支持所需的选择。这些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。具体来说，支持眼睛和手部运动的运动区域也与决策密切相关;然而，虽然决策神经网络的特征相对较好，但人们对大脑如何在执行决定后支持行为的在线变化知之甚少。该提案旨在研究支持在目标选择过程中不断修改决策的能力的大脑系统，并确定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大脑结构和神经信息流的理解，这些信息流是在行动执行过程中快速、灵活决策的基础。这对于告知创伤性脑损伤、中风和视神经共济失调等疾病引起的损伤以及设计更先进的神经修复术以更好地为截肢者提供动态的、真实的环境具有重要意义。本研究的目标是通过检查多个大脑系统如何相互作用以支持目标选择过程中的思维变化，从而更全面地了解人类决策。使用多方面的方法，包括行为，脑电图（EEG），功能性磁共振成像（fMRI），和先进的计算建模技术，这项建议将调查的神经基板，支持快速决策调整时执行的行动。具体来说，目标选择过程中空间注意力的分配如何影响思维变化？此外，在选择目标的过程中，大脑的高级皮层区域与眼和手相关的运动区域之间的信息流的性质是什么？这些结果将代表一个重要的一步，更完整地了解大脑机制参与复杂的人类决策的自然设置。这一建议也得到了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.