Uncertainty, Cognitive Control, and the Brain

描述(由申请人提供)：认知控制的神经关联已被广泛研究，使用各种神经成像技术。某些理论解释假定前扣带回皮质(ACC)在网络中起主要作用，这些网络被认为是冲突监测和解决的基础。然而，事实证明，这些账户的范围有限。我们认为，基于信息论框架，冲突只是不确定性的一种特例，可以被量化为信息熵。结合前额叶扣带系统中各区域的功能激活与各种需要认知控制的行为任务的反应时表现之间存在的良好关系，以及在ACC中发现的一类特殊神经元的观察，这些神经元非常适合于认知控制所涉及的分布式区域之间的快速和远程信息整合，我们提出了一个认知控制的额上扣带系统模型，其中ACC在信号不确定性中起主要作用。为了检验这一模型，我们设计了一系列实验，采用各种信息论方法，并提出了前额叶扣带系统的功能活动和连通性作为信息熵的函数 使用功能磁共振成像。这项研究不仅挑战了当前的认知控制理论，而且在认知神经科学领域以及关于认知控制中断在各种主要精神障碍中的研究中具有广泛的影响。 与公共健康相关：信息处理的认知控制缺陷可能出现在许多形式的精神病理中，如精神分裂症和自闭症，目前的数据表明，对信息进行有意识的处理是异常选择的。然而，为了推进对这些和其他障碍的研究，重要的是要关注构成健康成年人这些功能的网络的结构的相互作用。本提案的目的是在一个健康的成年志愿者群体中描述这些网络及其相互作用的特征，特别强调额叶顶叶-丘脑系统，以促进与信息处理的认知控制有关的理论，并通过开发全面和广泛的信息处理认知控制的神经生物学基础模型来促进翻译研究。

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.