RAPID: Emotional and neural influences on decision-making in the context of COVID-19

情绪影响和塑造人们感知世界的方式，从而影响他们如何做出决定和形成记忆；而这些情绪影响反过来又取决于特定的大脑结构和功能。在有效应对COVID-19大流行所需的充满情感的决策和行动的背景下，这些影响尤其重要。为了解决这些问题，结合大流行前行为和大脑结构的数据，该项目将测量2019冠状病毒病大流行期间的情绪状态如何改变决策，以及这种状态如何随着大脑多巴胺系统的结构而变化。更好地了解大流行病背景下的决策，可能使我们能够设计新的干预措施和信息格式，以加强防范和复原力。情绪对决策和记忆的影响都被认为取决于大脑的多巴胺系统，该系统参与处理情绪和奖励。该项目将确定多巴胺系统解剖结构和功能在多大程度上预测当前大流行背景下决策和记忆的变化。该项目利用了最近完成的一项神经成像研究，包括结构、功能和扩散加权数据，该研究表征了50名参与者的多巴胺系统，他们完成了一系列评估冲动、抑制控制和价值导向记忆形成的认知和行为任务。为了评估COVID-19大流行对决策的情绪影响，这些相同的认知和行为任务将在线提供给前一项研究的同一组参与者。将测试情绪状态和预先存在的多巴胺系统解剖结构在多大程度上预测决策和记忆形成相对于基线的差异。多巴胺系统解剖被预测为调节情绪、认知和行为之间的关系。总体而言，该项目将有助于了解大脑和情感如何结合起来影响对COVID-19的行为反应。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Emotions color and shape the way people perceive the world and thus how they make decisions and form memories; and those emotional impacts in turn can depend upon specific brain structures and functions. These effects are especially consequential in the context of the emotionally charged decisions and actions needed to respond effectively to the COVID-19 pandemic. To address these issues, in combination with data on pre-pandemic behavior and brain architecture, this project will measure how emotional state during the COVID-19 pandemic alters decision-making, and how that varies with the structure of the brain's dopamine system. Improved understanding of decision making in the context of the pandemic may enable us to design new interventions and information formats that will increase preparedness and resilience. The effects of emotions on decisions and memory have both been posited to depend on the brain’s dopamine system, which is involved in processing emotions and rewards. The project will determine the extent to which dopamine system anatomy and function predict changes in decision-making and memory in the current context of the pandemic. This project leverages a recently completed neuroimaging study that includes structural, functional, and diffusion-weighted data, which characterized the dopamine system in a group of 50 participants who completed a series of cognitive and behavioral tasks assessing impulsivity, inhibitory control, and value-directed memory formation. To assess the emotional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on decision-making, these same cognitive and behavioral tasks will be made available online to the same group of participants from the previous study. The degree to which emotional state, and pre-existing dopamine system anatomy, predicts differences in decision-making and memory formation relative to baseline will be tested. Dopamine system anatomy is predicted to moderate the relationship among emotions, cognition, and behavior. Overall, the project will contribute to an understanding of how brain and emotion combine to impact behavioral responses to COVID-19.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.