NCS-FO: Understanding the computations the brain performs during choice

NCS-FO：了解大脑在选择过程中执行的计算

• 批准号: 2319580
• 负责人: Karen Moxon
• 金额: $ 100万
• 依托单位: University of California-Davis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2319580&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NCS; FO; Understanding; computations; brain

This proposal seeks to understand how the brain supports and encodes decision making by taking an interdisciplinary approach. The researchers plan to use neural activity recorded while participants make complex decisions. This brain activity can then be captured in a model that makes particular predictions about how each brain area contributes to decision-making. In turn, the researchers hope to use that model to test specific hypothesis about how decision-making is affected by neurostimulation to those areas. Knowledge of how the brain supports decision making can provide invaluable insight for the development of educational curricula. Information is best presented to students in a way that works in concert with the brain. Further, insights from this project may provide insight into the development of artificial intelligence. This potential application has profound ethical implications that the researchers aim to study in this proposal. Finally, this work focuses on assessing the value underlying decision making which is fundamental to economics. Specifically, valuation maintains and/or updates our understanding of gains or losses based on experience. Overly risky or risk-averse behavior can lead to suboptimal decisions and have been linked to neuropsychological disorders. The proposed research is split into three simultaneous objectives. In the first, the researchers propose to identify which features of the data (e.g., amplitude of the neural activity) provide information about the decision-making process. In the second, the researchers aim to build decoders that explicitly combine those features to predict which decision the person will make. In the final objective the researchers aim to develop a control algorithm which predicts the person’s decision and then intervenes by applying neurostimulation to alter that decision. This closed loop stimulation may prove important for developing interventions that could, for example, help reduce risk seeking in compulsive gamblers. Alternatively, in some people that are too risk averse (never leave the house), at different type of stimulation could reduce this aversion to risk.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

本提案旨在通过跨学科的方法来理解大脑是如何支持和编码决策的。研究人员计划在参与者做出复杂决定时记录下他们的神经活动。然后，这种大脑活动可以被捕捉到一个模型中，该模型可以对每个大脑区域如何参与决策做出特定的预测。反过来，研究人员希望使用该模型来测试有关这些区域的神经刺激如何影响决策的具体假设。关于大脑如何支持决策的知识可以为教育课程的发展提供宝贵的见解。信息最好以一种与大脑协调一致的方式呈现给学生。此外，从这个项目中获得的见解可能会为人工智能的发展提供见解。这种潜在的应用具有深远的伦理意义，这是研究人员在本提案中旨在研究的。最后，这项工作的重点是评估决策背后的价值，这是经济学的基础。具体来说，估价维持和/或更新我们基于经验对收益或损失的理解。过度冒险或厌恶风险的行为会导致次优决策，并与神经心理障碍有关。拟议的研究分为三个同时进行的目标。首先，研究人员建议确定数据的哪些特征（例如，神经活动的振幅）提供了有关决策过程的信息。第二，研究人员的目标是建立解码器，明确地结合这些特征来预测这个人会做出什么决定。研究人员的最终目标是开发一种控制算法，它可以预测人的决定，然后通过应用神经刺激来干预，改变人的决定。这种闭环刺激可能对开发干预措施很重要，例如，有助于减少强迫性赌徒的风险寻求。另外，对于一些过于厌恶风险的人（从不离开家），不同类型的刺激可以减少这种对风险的厌恶。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。