Neural correlates of strategic thinking

战略思维的神经关联

• 批准号: 6395996
• 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: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-08-01 至 2001-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6395996
• 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.

几乎所有用于研究人类行为的任务都要求受试者在面对模棱两可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的其他方面的实验中引入了决策成分。受试者采取的策略，以应对这一决策组成部分，可以戏剧性和误导性的影响实验结果，如果他们没有明确考虑由研究者。本研究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，研究对象也有强烈的倾向去寻找并假定因果关系。有证据表明，大多数人的左半球结构支持这种倾向。当事件之间存在逻辑关系时，这种思维过程是真正有益的，但如果不存在偶然关系，则可能是有害的。我们建议对正常受试者、胼胝体切开术患者和病变患者进行一系列研究，以改变任务要素之间关系的性质，并检查所形成的假设的存在和性质。来自患者群体的数据将有助于确定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。