A Neural and Computational Framework of the Effort Paradox

努力悖论的神经和计算框架

• 批准号: EP/Y014561/1
• 负责人: Matthew Apps
• 金额: $ 215.62万
• 依托单位: University of Birmingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FY014561%2F1
• 关键词: Neural; Computational; Framework; Effort; Paradox

Exerting effort is essential for a successful life. From training for a marathon, to completing a project before work deadlines, meeting our goals requires us to repeatedly choose to undertake effortful acts. Pathological reductions in such goal-directed motivation characterise some of the most common and debilitating symptoms in psychiatry and neurology. Moreover, solving humanities greatest challenges (e.g. climate change) will require billions of people to exert more effort than they typically do. Yet, we have a limited understanding of the biggest challenge to research on motivation: the effort paradox. On one hand, decades of research shows that people conform to a law of least effort, avoiding the cost of effort. On the other hand, at school, work or in our hobbies, people break that law daily, we pursue and seek highly effortful acts when easier options are available. How does the brain concurrently process effort as a cost to avoid, but a benefit to seek? EffDox will deliver a paradigm shift in our understanding of the cognitive, computational and neural basis of motivation to address this paradox. It will provide novel paradigms and computational models to understand the cognitive processes and individual differences that underlie how people switch from avoiding effort to seeking it. A suite of neuroscience tools, never previously combined to examine motivation, will offer a new understanding and test specific hypotheses about the neural dynamics underlying effort. This will include multivariate techniques to 'fuse' together functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Magnetoencephalography (MEG) in healthy people; simultaneous deep brain stimulation, cortical intracranial and subcortical recordings, in unique samples of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, and testing links between dopamine, motivation and neural signals with wearable MEG. These conceptual, methodological and analytical innovations will reveal a new understanding of the effort paradox.

努力对于成功的生活是必不可少的。从马拉松训练，到在工作截止日期前完成一个项目，要实现我们的目标，我们需要反复选择采取艰苦的行动。这种以目标为导向的动机的病理性减少是精神病学和神经病学中一些最常见和最令人衰弱的症状的特征。此外，解决人文领域最大的挑战(例如气候变化)将需要数十亿人付出比平时更多的努力。然而，我们对动机研究面临的最大挑战--努力悖论的理解有限。一方面，几十年的研究表明，人们遵循最少的努力法则，避免了努力的成本。另一方面，在学校、工作或我们的爱好中，人们每天都会违反这条法律，当有更容易的选择时，我们会追求并寻求高度努力的行为。大脑如何同时将努力视为一种避免的成本，而不是一种需要寻求的好处？EffDox将使我们对解决这一悖论的动机的认知、计算和神经基础的理解发生范式转变。它将提供新的范例和计算模型，以理解认知过程和个体差异，这些过程和个体差异是人们从逃避努力转向寻求努力的基础。一套以前从未被用来检验动机的神经科学工具，将提供一种新的理解，并测试关于努力背后的神经动力学的具体假设。这将包括在健康人中将功能磁共振成像(FMRI)和脑磁图(MEG)融合在一起的多元技术；在帕金森病(PD)患者的独特样本中同时进行脑深部刺激、皮质脑内和皮质下记录，以及测试多巴胺、动机和神经信号与可穿戴MEG之间的联系。这些概念、方法和分析上的创新将揭示出对努力悖论的新理解。