Frontal cortical mechanisms and interactions during learning and decision making

目前这项提议的目的是研究学习和决策的神经机制。学习，获得新的行为和信息，以及决策，即根据这些信息采取行动的能力，是我们一生中发挥作用的两种最基本的认知操作。学习和决策的障碍往往是精神疾病的核心；适应不良的选择不仅是一开始就做出的，而且也不会因为经验而调整。必须强调的是，我们不仅调查学习和决策的基本方面，而且，例如，我们还试图在社会领域理解这些过程。学习和决策不是依赖于一个单一的大脑区域，而是依赖于许多区域之间发生的相互作用。我们的目标是研究五个关键电路中的这些相互作用。重点将放在位于大脑额叶的五个回路的部分上，目的是测试这些回路的额叶成分是否以及如何调节它们所属的其余回路的活动。我们将从两个主要方面来研究大脑回路中的相互作用。首先，我们将尝试操作和更改每个电路的一个组件中的活动，然后记录对行为和记录在电路的其他部分的活动的影响。这可以通过在大脑区域进行选择性损伤来实现，因此有必要使用动物模型。在目前的案例中，大脑区域只存在于少数物种中，因此猕猴是模式物种。通过使用一种非侵入性脑扫描技术--功能磁共振成像(FMRI)来记录提供大脑活动指数的血氧水平依赖(BOLD)信号，可以研究病变？S对网络其他部分的影响。我们可以观察大脑回路的第二种方法是使用大脑扫描仪获取不同类型的MRI数据，扩散加权MRI(DW-MRI)。DW-MRI扫描提供了有关运行在大脑回路不同组成部分之间的白质通路的信息。我们计划观察在学习以最有效的方式做出决定的过程中，连接大脑回路的通路是如何变化的。

The aim of the current proposal is to look at the neural mechanisms of learning and decision making. Learning, the acquisition of new behaviours and information, and decision making, the ability to act on that information, are two of the most fundamental cognitive operations that are called into play throughout our lives. Impairments in learning and decision making are often central to psychiatric conditions; maladaptive choices are not just made in the first place but they are also not adjusted as a result of experience. It is important to emphasize that not only do we investigate basic aspects of learning and decision making but, for example, we also attempt to understand such processes in the social domain. Learning and decision making do not depend on a single brain region but on the interactions that occur between many regions. Our aim is to investigate these interactions in five key circuits. The focus will be on the parts of the five circuits that are located in the frontal lobes of the brain and the aim is to test whether and how the frontal components of these circuits regulate activity in the rest of the circuits of which they are parts. The interactions within brain circuits will be investigated in two principal ways. First, we will attempt to manipulate and alter activity in one component of each circuit and then record the consequences for behaviour and for activity recorded in other parts of the circuits. This can be done by making a selective lesion in a brain area and for this reason it is necessary to use animal models. In the current case the brain areas are only present in a few species and so the macaque is the model species. The lesion?s effect on other parts of the network can be investigated by using a non-invasive brain scanner technique, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to record the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal that provides an index of brain activity. The second way that we can look at brain circuits is by using the brain scanner to acquire a different type of MRI data, diffusion weighted MRI (DW-MRI). DW-MRI scans provide information about the white matter pathways that run between different component parts of brain circuits. We plan to look at how the pathways linking brain circuits change during learning to make decisions in the most effective manner possible.