Subjective Cognitive Effort Indexes Sub-Criticality in the Brain

项目摘要/摘要 认知方面的努力在主观上是昂贵的。它会导致人们忽视有价值的目标，避免深思熟虑 计划和周密的考虑。因此，努力回避可能会有问题，特别是在像这样的障碍中 抑郁症和精神分裂症，这些疾病对成本的过度敏感会削弱认知动机。致信地址 成本敏感性，我们首先需要了解大脑认为什么是昂贵的。传统指标，如侧额 FMRI信号和脑电数据中的顶叶阿尔法去同步，跟踪认知负荷到某一点，但通常处于停滞状态 或下降，即使主观努力继续上升。本项目将考察一个有前景的候选指标 认知努力的结果：关键抑制。临界性是静息状态下大脑皮质动力学的特征，先前的研究已经 表明大脑在已知的条件下变得越来越不关键，从而增加主观 努力：增加工作记忆负荷、疲劳、睡眠不足、新鲜感和认知老化。在目标1中， 临界性抑制将通过脑电监测，并与主观的行为经济学指标进行比较 个人之间和个人内部的努力成本(捕捉成本敏感度的个体差异) (捕获跨负载级别的成本敏感度)。在目标2中，将使用TMS来测试调制临界性 (人为)影响对努力成本的敏感度，而不是认知需求。最后，在目标3中，并发TMS- 脑电将被用来研究调节临界性的机制。特别是，目标3将检验这一假设 大脑皮层的兴奋-抑制平衡调节大脑运作到临界状态的程度，以及 因此，人们对努力成本是多么敏感。因此，目标1和目标2将为申请者提供必要的 在测试将关键程度与主观认知联系起来的新假设的同时，进行脑电和TMS方法学培训 努力。随后，在申请者的独立阶段，目标3将结合和应用这些方法 测试可能构成认知努力、工作记忆和认知动机的假想机制。

Project Summary / Abstract Cognitive effort is subjectively costly. It can cause people to discount valuable goals and avoid thoughtful planning and careful deliberation. Effort avoidance can thus be problematic, especially in disorders like depression and schizophrenia where excessive cost sensitivity undermines cognitive motivation. To address cost sensitivity, we first need to understand what the brain treats as costly. Traditional indices, like lateral frontal fMRI signals, and parietal alpha desynchronization in EEG data, track cognitive load to a point, but often plateau or decline, even when subjective effort continues to rise. This project will examine a promising candidate metric of cognitive effort: criticality suppression. Criticality characterizes cortical dynamics at rest, and prior studies have shown that brains becomes increasingly sub-critical under the very conditions known to increase subjective effort: increasing working memory load, fatigue, sleep deprivation, novelty, and cognitive aging. In Aim 1, criticality suppression will be monitored with EEG, and compared to behavioral economic measures of subjective effort costs both across individuals (capturing individual differences in cost sensitivity) and within individuals (capturing cost sensitivity across load levels). In Aim 2, TMS will be used to test whether modulating criticality (artificially) impacts sensitivity to effort costs, apart from cognitive demands. Finally, in Aim 3, concurrent TMS- EEG will be used to investigate the mechanisms regulating criticality. In particular, Aim 3 will test the hypothesis that the cortical excitatory-inhibitory balance regulates how closely to a critical state the brain operates, and thereby how sensitive people are to effort costs. Aims 1 and 2 will thus provide the applicant with essential training in EEG and TMS methodologies while testing a novel hypothesis linking criticality to subjective cognitive effort. Subsequently, in the applicant’s independent phase, Aim 3 will combine and apply these methodologies to test hypothesized mechanisms which may underlie cognitive effort, working memory, and cognitive motivation.