CAREER: Time-resolved decoding of explore/exploit computations in the human brain

探索和开发之间的权衡是我们在选择选项时经常面临的两难境地。这种权衡在日常生活中一直在发生——我们是“利用”我们已经知道的东西，还是“探索”一些新的和不熟悉的东西？我们是选择去我们最喜欢的餐厅（利用）还是尝试一家新餐厅（探索）？其他的例子包括决定去哪里度假，在聚会上和哪些朋友聊天，或者在餐馆点什么食物。虽然探索新地方、新朋友、新食物是弄清楚我们喜欢什么并形成新偏好的关键，但它是以放弃熟悉选择的直接价值为代价的。该项目旨在了解探索或利用的决定是如何在人脑中形成的。为了了解决策的神经基础，可以使用两种非侵入性、互补的神经成像技术来分析人们做出探索或利用决策时的大脑活动。一种方法（fMRI或功能性磁共振成像）具有极好的空间分辨率，可以分辨出决策过程中大脑活动的定位。另一种方法（MEG或脑电图）具有出色的时间分辨率，可以精确地指出当人们做出探索-利用决策时大脑信号何时出现。相对而言，我们对大脑做出这些决定的时间知之甚少。利用这些神经成像技术，实验测量了在人们试图获得尽可能多的利益的情况下，以及在人们试图避免损失的对比情况下，大脑活动的时空模式。这将允许一个假设的实验测试，即当人们试图通过探索-利用决策来最大化利润时所涉及的大脑回路与他们试图最小化损失时所涉及的大脑回路是不同的。利用计算建模，该项目还将研究在不同条件下和决策试验的不同时间点，从MEG脑数据解码勘探和开发决策的准确性。额外的研究将使用一种技术（TMS或经颅磁刺激）来安全地刺激大脑，为大脑如何控制探索-利用决策的预测提供“因果”测试。在决策过程中，人类大脑如何在熟悉性和新颖性之间进行选择是人类大脑和决策科学中一个长期存在的谜题，该研究项目可能会大大增加我们对决策背后的神经机制的了解。这些研究还将在教育和临床环境以及在神经科学的见解可能鼓励和帮助人们做出更好选择的广泛背景下具有重要的社会意义。该项目的科学研究将伴随着一个扩展计划，向一个代表性不足的社区教授计算机编程和STEM技能，并向他们介绍神经科学研究的兴奋。本项目由SBE认知神经科学项目和EPSCoR （Established Program to stimulation Competitive Research）共同资助。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。

The exploration-exploitation tradeoff is a dilemma we frequently face in choosing between options. This tradeoff happens all the time in everyday life - do we ‘exploit’ what we already know, or ‘explore’ something new and unfamiliar? Do we choose to go to our favorite restaurant (exploitation) or try out a new restaurant (exploration)? Other examples include deciding where to go for vacation, which friends to talk to at a party, or what foods to order at the restaurant. While exploring new places, new friends, new foods is key to figuring out what we like and can lead to the formation of new preferences, it comes at the cost of foregoing the immediate value of familiar options. This project seeks to understand how the decision to explore or exploit takes shape in the human brain. In order to understand the neural basis of decision making, two non-invasive, complementary neuroimaging techniques can be used to analyze brain activity while people make the decision to explore or exploit. One approach (fMRI or functional magnetic resonance imaging) has superb spatial resolution, and can tell where brain activity is localized during decision-making. Another approach (MEG or magnoencephalography) has excellent temporal resolution and can pinpoint precisely when brain signals occur while people make explore-exploit decisions. Relatively little is known about the timing of these decisions in the brain. Utilizing these neuroimaging techniques, experiments measure the spatiotemporal patterns of brain activity in situations where people are trying to gain as many profits as possible, as well as in contrasting situations where people are trying to avoid losses. This will allow an experimental test of the hypothesis that the brain circuits involved when people are trying to maximize profits through explore-exploit decisions are distinct from the circuits involved when they are trying to minimize losses. Using computational modeling, the project will also study the accuracy of decoding exploration and exploitation decisions from MEG brain data under different conditions and at different points in a decision trial. Additional research will use a technique (TMS or transcranial magnetic stimulation) for safely stimulating the brain to provide a ‘cause-and-effect’ test of predictions about how the brain controls explore-exploit decisions. How the human brain chooses between familiarity and novelty during decision-making is a long-standing mystery in human brain and decision sciences, and this research project is likely to greatly increase our knowledge of the neural mechanisms underlying decision making. These studies will also have significant societal implications in educational and clinical settings and in a broad array of contexts where insights from neuroscience may encourage and help people to make better choices. The scientific research in this project will be accompanied by an outreach program to an under-represented community to teach computer programming and STEM skills to high school students, and introduce them to the excitement of neuroscience research.This project is jointly funded by the Cognitive Neuroscience Program in SBE, and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.