Interdisciplinary studies of decision-making and motor planning

决策和运动规划的跨学科研究

• 批准号: RGPIN-2022-05345
• 负责人: Cisek, Paul
• 金额: $ 3.42万
• 依托单位: Université de Montréal
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=761462
• 关键词: Interdisciplinary; studies; decision; making; motor

Most theories of decision-making suggest that the brain first builds abstract representations of choices in terms of subjective values, costs, risks, etc., then uses these to select a goal, and finally transforms that goal into a movement command. However, a growing body of neural data increasingly casts such classical serial frameworks into doubt. Part of the reason, I believe, is that the brain is the product of a long history of evolution, during most of which animals were faced with challenges very different from those of abstract cognition. For example, most decisions in animal life are made in a real-time, dynamically changing environment, which does not allow time for careful deliberation followed by action planning. For effective behavior in such dynamic situations, the brain requires a parallel architecture in which multiple potential actions can be specified simultaneously, one selected on the basis of continuously changing sensory information, and all the while other options continue to remain under consideration in case circumstances suddenly change. To deal with such situations, I've proposed the "affordance competition hypothesis", which suggests that the functional organization of behavior is a parallel architecture whereby sensory information is processed to specify several potential actions that compete against each other in sensorimotor circuits while other systems collect information for biasing that competition to select a winning action. My research program focuses on testing and further developing this broad theoretical framework. I address these goals through an interdisciplinary approach that integrates computational modeling with a range of experimental techniques, including multi-electrode recording in awake, behaving monkeys, as well as human behavioral, imaging, and transcranial magnetic stimulation studies. My NSERC Discovery Grant supports the computational projects as well as experimental studies with human subjects. Current projects fall into three general themes. Theme #1 addresses how the brain makes decisions in a dynamically changing environment, and will involve developing a computational model on the basis of existing data from CIHR-funded neural recording experiments in monkeys as well as NSERC-funded magnetoencephalography (MEG) in humans. Theme #2 generalizes these ideas toward higher-level decisions, but still framed within a natural context. In particular, we will launch a new series of MEG studies in humans to investigate "foraging" choices between engaging currently available opportunities versus searching for new opportunities elsewhere. Theme #3 addresses a very novel line of research: how decisions are made while we are already acting. This builds on behavioral paradigms we pioneered in the previous funding cycle of my Discovery Grant, which we will extend toward investigating neural mechanisms through the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation in humans during a variety of manual tracking tasks.

大多数决策理论认为，大脑首先根据主观价值、成本、风险等建立选择的抽象表征，然后使用这些来选择一个目标，最后将该目标转换为移动命令。然而，越来越多的神经数据越来越多地使这种经典的序列框架受到质疑。我认为，部分原因是大脑是漫长进化史的产物，在这一过程中，动物面临的挑战与抽象认知的挑战大不相同。例如，动物生活中的大多数决定都是在实时、动态变化的环境中做出的，这就不允许有时间进行仔细的审议，然后再进行行动规划。为了在这种动态的情况下有效地采取行动，大脑需要一种并行的结构，在这种结构中，可以同时指定多个潜在的行动，根据不断变化的感官信息选择一个，同时继续考虑其他选项，以防情况突然发生变化。为了应对这种情况，我提出了“可供性竞争假说”，这表明行为的功能组织是一个平行的架构，其中感官信息被处理以指定几个潜在的动作，这些动作在感觉运动回路中相互竞争，而其他系统则收集信息以偏置竞争以选择获胜的动作。我的研究计划侧重于测试和进一步发展这一广泛的理论框架。我通过一种跨学科的方法来实现这些目标，该方法将计算建模与一系列实验技术相结合，包括清醒的多电极记录，行为猴子，以及人类行为，成像和经颅磁刺激研究。我的NSERC发现补助金支持计算项目以及人类受试者的实验研究。目前的项目分为三大主题。主题#1解决了大脑如何在动态变化的环境中做出决策，并将涉及基于CIHR资助的猴子神经记录实验以及NSERC资助的人类脑磁图（MEG）的现有数据开发计算模型。主题#2将这些想法概括为更高层次的决策，但仍然在自然的背景下框架。特别是，我们将在人类中开展一系列新的MEG研究，以调查在利用现有机会与在其他地方寻找新机会之间的“觅食”选择。主题3涉及一个非常新颖的研究方向：当我们已经在行动时，我们是如何做出决定的。这是建立在我们在我的探索基金的上一个资助周期中开创的行为范式的基础上的，我们将通过在各种手动跟踪任务中使用经颅磁刺激来研究人类的神经机制。