Neurocognitive mechanisms of control over cognitive stability and flexibility

控制认知稳定性和灵活性的神经认知机制

• 批准号: 10709062
• 负责人: Tobias Egner
• 金额: $ 47.64万
• 依托单位: DUKE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2028-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10709062
• 关键词: Adaptive Behaviors; Address; Allium cepa; Anterior; Attention; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Basal Ganglia; Basic Science; Behavior; Behavioral; Brain; Clinical; Cognitive; Computer Models; Conflict (Psychology); Data; Data Set; Diffusion; Electroencephalography; Environment; Exposure to; Failure; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Geometry; Goals; Human; Impairment; Investigation; Lateral; Learning; Life; Literature; Measures; Mediating; Modeling; Monitor; Neuroanatomy; Neurocognitive; Neurologic; Parietal; Patients; Phase; Population; Process; Protocols documentation; Psychological reinforcement; Reaction Time; Readiness; Reading; Recipe; Regulation; Resolution; Role; Shapes; Site; Slice; Stimulus; Testing; Time; Variant; Work; adjudication; base; behavior test; blood flow measurement; cingulate cortex; cognitive control; cognitive process; cognitive reappraisal; cooking; cost; distraction; flexibility; innovation; learning algorithm; millisecond; neural; neuromechanism; novel; response; simulation; stimulus processing; success; temporal measurement

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Humans have a uniquely developed ability to impose internal goals on how they interact with their environment. Referred to as “cognitive control”, this capacity includes two core components: (1) the ability to focus attention on currently goal-relevant stimulus features and responses (a “task set”) while ignoring task-irrelevant features (cognitive stability); and (2) the ability to switch to a different task set when circumstances change (cognitive flexibility). Crucially, to thrive in a dynamic environment, we need to continuously adapt our levels of cognitive stability and flexibility to suit changing demands. E.g., when cooking a meal, needs for stability (e.g., a strong task-focus when slicing onion) and flexibility (e.g., rapid shifting between recipe reading and stovetop monitoring) change frequently over time. The strategic regulation of stability and flexibility is thus fundamental for success in everyday life, and is in fact severely impaired in many clinical conditions. However, the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms are poorly understood. This is due to the fact that, while there are large literatures on cognitive stability (in the shape of conflict-control studies) and flexibility (in the shape of task-switching studies), these processes have been either investigated in isolation, conflated, or not interrogated in terms of their dynamic adaptation. The present proposal seeks to overcome these barriers to progress by combining a novel task protocol that assesses simultaneous and independent adaptive shifts in stability and flexibility with computational modeling, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and intracranial electro- encephalography (iEEG). Our overall goal is to characterize the neurocognitive mechanisms of concurrent, strategic control over cognitive stability and flexibility. We triangulate this goal via three aims: Aim 1 seeks to establish the first computational model of concurrent stability and flexibility regulation by fitting and simulating behavioral data from protocols with time-varying demands on stability and flexibility (Studies 1 and 2). Our working model consists of two independent reinforcement learners making trial-by-trial predictions about forthcoming demands on stability (conflict- likelihood) and flexibility (switch-likelihood), which in turn modulate distinct within-trial drift-diffusion model parameters. Aim 2 employs the winning model to determine the neural mechanisms mediating these adjustments in stability and flexibility. Building on a large prior literature, we use complementary fMRI (Study 3) and iEEG (Study 4) approaches to test specific neuroanatomical hypotheses about the respective roles of the lateral prefrontal, posterior parietal, and anterior cingulate cortex, as well as the basal ganglia, in supporting the proactive adaptation of stability and flexibility to time-varying demands. Finally, Aim 3 will use fMRI to characterize the neural reinstatement of context- appropriate stability and flexibility settings when they are applied reactively, i.e., in response to specific demand- predicting stimuli (Study 5). Together, these complementary aims represent the first systematic investigation into the computational and neural mechanisms underlying the concurrent regulation of cognitive stability and flexibility. This innovative project will significantly advance our understanding of the neurocomputational bases of cognitive control, and lay the groundwork for identifying potential failure modes of stability and flexibility regulation in clinical conditions.

项目总结/摘要 人类有一种独特的发展能力，可以将内部目标强加于他们如何与环境互动。 被称为“认知控制”，这种能力包括两个核心组成部分：（1）集中注意力的能力 当前目标相关的刺激特征和响应（"任务集"），而忽略任务无关的特征（认知的 稳定性）;以及（2）当环境改变时切换到不同任务集的能力（认知灵活性）。最关键的是， 为了在动态环境中茁壮成长，我们需要不断调整我们的认知稳定性和灵活性水平，以适应 不断变化的需求。例如，在一个示例中，当烹饪膳食时，对稳定性的需要（例如，在切洋葱时， 灵活性（例如，在食谱阅读和炉顶监控之间的快速转换）随时间频繁地改变。的 因此，对稳定性和灵活性的战略调整是日常生活中成功的基础，事实上， 在许多临床条件下受损。然而，对潜在的神经认知机制知之甚少。这是 由于事实上，虽然有大量关于认知稳定性的文献（以冲突控制研究的形式）， 灵活性（以任务转换研究的形式），这些过程要么被孤立地研究，要么被合并， 或不询问他们的动态适应。本提案旨在克服这些障碍， 通过结合一种新的任务协议来评估稳定性的同时和独立的适应性变化， 计算建模、功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）和颅内电成像的灵活性 脑电图（iEEG）。我们的总体目标是描述并发的，策略性的， 控制认知的稳定性和灵活性。我们通过三个目标对这一目标进行三角分析：目标1寻求建立第一个目标， 通过拟合和模拟行为数据， 对稳定性和灵活性要求随时间变化的方案（研究1和2）。我们的工作模型包括两个 独立的强化学习者对即将到来的稳定性需求（冲突）进行逐个试验的预测， 似然）和灵活性（开关似然），这反过来又调制不同的试验内漂移扩散模型 参数目标2采用获胜模型来确定神经机制介导这些调整， 稳定性和灵活性。在大量文献的基础上，我们使用互补的fMRI（研究3）和iEEG（研究4） 方法来测试特定的神经解剖学假设的各自作用的外侧前额叶，后 顶叶、前扣带皮层以及基底神经节，支持稳定性的主动适应 灵活应对时变需求。最后，目标3将使用功能磁共振成像来表征神经恢复的背景- 适当的稳定性和灵活性设置，当它们被反应性地应用时，即，根据具体要求， 预测刺激（研究5）。总之，这些互补的目标代表了第一个系统的调查， 认知稳定性和灵活性的并行调节背后的计算和神经机制。这 创新的项目将大大推进我们对认知控制的神经计算基础的理解， 并为识别临床条件下稳定性和灵活性调节的潜在失效模式奠定基础。