NEURONAL BASIS OF PERSISTENCE

摘要 理解选择和控制的神经基础的传统方法包括离散选择 任务。在这些任务中，决策者在单个时间点做出明确的决定。虽然这样的任务 都带来了无价的洞察力，但它们并不适合揭示自然的关键元素之一 决定，它们的连续性。作为一种实验室工具，连续决策尤其有趣 研究持久力的神经基础，这是戒毒的关键因素，很难 利用离散的决策任务进行捕获。理解连续决策的神经基础是至关重要的 以加深对决策神经回路的理解。使用离散选择任务， 神经科学在理解选择和控制方面取得了很大进展，并开始确定其作用。 背侧前扣带回皮质(DACC)是大脑的一个关键结构。该区域单个神经元的活动 对多个变量进行编码，这些变量与离散决策的各个方面相关，也与监控 这些决定的结果，并在之后适当地调整行为。DACC中的异常活动是 也与自制力差和持久力差相关的疾病的进展有关，例如 上瘾。这些事实有力地表明，dACC在持续决策中也发挥着关键作用。我们的 中心假设是，连续决策中的监控和决策过程都是 至少部分由dACC实现。研究连续决策的一个关键障碍是缺乏 容易使用的实验室任务，可以在模型动物身上进行训练，可以可靠地进行数百次试验， 这激发了坚持不懈，并激励着持续的调整。我们的实验室最近开发了一种导引式 恒河猴的追逐任务。在这项任务中，受试者使用操纵杆来控制电脑上的化身 屏幕上。使用这个化身，他们追逐虚拟的逃跑的猎物，避免追逐捕食者(换句话说，这是一种 一种简化的吃豆人)。我们提议的研究计划将回答以下关键问题：如何 DACC是否跟踪特工在引导追击中的行动？其行为和神经基础是什么？ 在制导追击中的未来状态预测？持续思维变化的神经基础是什么？ 决定？

Abstract Traditional approaches to understanding the neural bases of choice and control involve discrete choice tasks. In these tasks, decision-makers make categorical decisions at a single point in time. While such tasks have led to invaluable insights, they are poorly suited to shed light on one of the key elements of natural decisions, their continuous nature. Continuous decisions are especially interesting as a laboratory tool for studying the neural basis of persistence, which is a key ingredient of drug abstinence and which is difficult to capture with discrete decision-making tasks. Understanding the neural basis of continuous decisions is critical for developing an understanding of the neural circuitry of decision-making. Using discrete choice tasks, neuroscience has made great strides in understanding choice and control, and has begun to pin down the role of a key brain structure, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). Activity of single neurons in this region encodes multiple variables associated with aspects of discrete decisions and also with monitoring the outcomes of those decisions and adjusting behavior appropriately afterward. Aberrant activity in the dACC is also associated with the progression of diseases associated with poor self-control and persistence, such as addiction. These facts suggest strongly that the dACC plays a pivotal role in continuous decisions as well. Our central hypothesis is that both monitoring and decision processes in continuous decision-making are implemented, at least in part, by dACC. One critical barrier to studying continuous decisions is the lack of readily usable laboratory tasks that are trainable in model animals, reliably performable for hundreds of trials, that elicit persistence, and that motivate continuous adjustment. Our lab has recently developed a guided pursuit task for rhesus macaques. In this task, subjects use a joystick to control an avatar on a computer screen. Using this avatar, they pursue virtual fleeing prey and avoid pursuing predators (in other words, it is a kind of simplified Pac-man). Our proposed research program will answer the following key questions: How does the dACC track movements of agents in guided pursuit? What are the behavioral and neural bases of future state prediction in guided pursuit? What are the neural bases of changes of mind in continuous decisions?