Neural correlates of strategic thinking

战略思维的神经关联

• 批准号: 6233266
• 负责人: GEORGE L WOLFORD
• 金额: $ 17.93万
• 依托单位: DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1988
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1988-07-01 至 2004-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6233266
• 关键词: brain injury; brain interhemispheric activity; brain mapping; clinical research; cognition; decision making; human subject; neural information processing; perception; split brain

Almost every task used in studying human behavior demands that subjects make categorical responses int eh face of ambiguous or incomplete information. This requirement introduces a decision-making component into many experiments that are designed to measure other aspects of perception or cognition. The strategies subjects adopt to cope with this decision-making component can dramatically and misleadingly influence experimental outcomes if they are not explicitly considered by the investigator. The aim of this proposal is to investigate the role of strategic thinking in behavioral tasks and to investigate specific neural mechanisms associated with decision making and strategic though processes. We propose a series of experiments to investigate the role of the left hemisphere and the prefrontal cortex in hypothesis formation. We believe that subjects have a strong tendency to look for and to posit causal relationships even when none exist. There is evidence that this tendency is supported by structures in the left hemisphere in most individuals. This type of thought process is of real benefit when there is a logical relationship among events but is potentially detrimental if there is no casual relationship exists. We propose a series of studies testing normal subjects, callosotomy patients, and lesion patients that vary the nature of the relationship among elements of the task and examine the presence and nature of hypothesis that are formed. Data from the patient populations will serve to identify cortical regions fundamental to these tasks. We believe that these two sets of studies will have a significant impact on the way that imaging studies and patient studies are evaluated, and will further our understanding of how the brain makes a decision.

几乎每一项研究人类行为的任务都要求被试在面对模糊或不完整的信息时做出明确的反应。这一要求在许多旨在测量感知或认知其他方面的实验中引入了决策组件。如果研究者没有明确地考虑到受试者为科普这一决策过程而采取的策略，那么这些策略可能会极大地、误导性地影响实验结果。该建议的目的是研究战略思维在行为任务中的作用，并研究与决策和战略思维过程相关的特定神经机制。我们提出了一系列的实验来研究左半球和前额叶皮层在假设形成中的作用。我们相信，即使不存在因果关系，受试者也有强烈的寻找和否认因果关系的倾向。有证据表明，这种倾向得到了大多数人左半球结构的支持。当事件之间存在逻辑关系时，这种类型的思维过程具有真实的益处，但如果没有因果关系存在，则可能有害。我们提出了一系列的研究测试正常受试者，胼胝体切开术患者，病变患者不同的任务元素之间的关系的性质，并检查的存在和性质的假设，形成。来自患者群体的数据将用于识别这些任务的基本皮层区域。我们相信这两组研究将对成像研究和患者研究的评估方式产生重大影响，并将进一步加深我们对大脑如何做出决定的理解。