Uncertainty, Cognitive Control, and the Brain

描述（由申请人提供）：认知控制的神经相关已经通过各种神经成像技术进行了广泛的研究。某些理论假设了前扣带皮层（ACC）在网络中的主要作用，假设它是冲突监测和解决的基础。然而，这些帐户的范围已被证明是有限的。我们认为冲突只是一种特殊情况的不确定性，可以量化为信息熵，基于信息理论框架。结合额顶扣带系统区域的功能激活与需要认知控制的各种行为任务的反应时间表现之间存在的强大关系，以及在前扣带皮层中发现的一类特殊神经元的观察，这些神经元非常适合在涉及认知控制的分布区域之间进行快速和长距离的信息整合，我们提出了一个认知控制的额顶扣带系统模型，其中ACC在信号不确定性中起主要作用。为了验证这一模型，我们设计了一系列的实验，采用各种信息理论方法，并提出将额顶扣带系统的功能活动和连通性作为信息熵的函数来研究

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The neural correlates of cognitive control have been studied extensively using various neuroimaging techniques. Certain theoretical accounts posit a major role of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in networks hypothesized to underlie conflict monitoring and resolution. However, the scope of these accounts has proven limited. We argue that conflict is only a special case of uncertainty that can be quantified as information entropy, based on an information theory framework. In conjunction with the existence of a robust relationship between functional activation of regions in a frontoparietocingulate system and reaction time performance across various behavioral tasks requiring cognitive control, as well as observation of a special class of neurons found in the ACC that are well suited for rapid and long distance integration of information among distributed regions involved in cognitive control, we propose a frontoparietocingulate system model of cognitive control in which the ACC plays a major role in signaling uncertainty. In order to test this model, we have designed a series of experiments with various information theoretic measures and propose to examine functional activity and connectivity of the frontoparietocingulate system as a function of information entropy using functional magnetic resonance imaging. This study not only challenges the current theories of cognitive control, but also has a wide ranging impact within the field of cognitive neuroscience as well as studies on the disruption of cognitive control in a variety of major psychiatric disorders. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Deficits in cognitive control of information processing may be present in many forms of psychopathologies, such as schizophrenia and autism, for which current data suggest aberrant selection of information for conscious processing. In order to advance the study of these and other disorders, however, it is important to focus on the interplay of structures composing the networks that underlie these functions in healthy adults. The aim of the current proposal is to characterize these networks and their interactions with specific emphasis on the frontoparietocingulate system in a population of healthy adult volunteers, so as to advance the theory related to the cognitive control of information processing, and to facilitate translational research via development of comprehensive and wide-reaching models of the neurobiological underpinnings of cognitive control of information processing.