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.

坚持不懈的努力对成功的人生是必不可少的。从马拉松训练到在工作期限前完成一个项目，实现我们的目标需要我们反复选择采取努力的行动。在精神病学和神经病学中，这种目标导向的动机的病理性减少是最常见和最令人衰弱的症状之一。此外，解决人类面临的最大挑战（例如气候变化）将需要数十亿人付出比通常更多的努力。然而，我们对动机研究的最大挑战：努力悖论的理解有限。一方面，数十年的研究表明，人们遵循最少努力定律，避免努力成本。另一方面，在学校，工作或我们的爱好中，人们每天都在打破这条定律，当有更容易的选择时，我们追求和寻求高度努力的行为。大脑是如何同时将努力作为一种要避免的成本和要寻求的利益来处理的？EffDox将在我们对动机的认知，计算和神经基础的理解中实现范式转变，以解决这一悖论。它将提供新的范式和计算模型，以理解认知过程和个体差异，这些过程和个体差异是人们如何从避免努力转向寻求努力的基础。一套神经科学工具，以前从未组合起来研究动机，将提供新的理解和测试关于努力背后的神经动力学的特定假设。这将包括将健康人的功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）和脑磁图（MEG）“融合”在一起的多变量技术;在帕金森病（PD）患者的独特样本中同时进行深部脑刺激，皮层颅内和皮层下记录，以及使用可穿戴MEG测试多巴胺，动机和神经信号之间的联系。这些概念、方法和分析方面的创新将揭示对努力悖论的新理解。