Integrating Perception and Action in a Neural Field Theory of Response Selection

描述（由申请人提供）：反应选择对于在真实的世界中成功运作至关重要。当这种能力受损时（通过脑损伤或正常的认知老化），会出现许多困难，如持续和其他动作失误。本建议试图开发一个一般模型的反应选择来解释如何刺激输入转化为目标为基础的行动，以及如何刺激和反应的属性相互作用，以影响行为。我们实现的模型是基于动态神经场理论（DNFT），并在真实的时间子符号表示。此外，该模型很容易模拟神经激活，从而为神经成像实验做出预测。我们专注于两个因素，在响应选择文献中很少受到关注，但对于理解中央操作和将理论应用于现实世界的情况至关重要。我们选择这些因素，因为它们是所提出的模型做出明确预测的点，而不是由传统的反应选择帐户。此外，它们还提供了建立新的、受理论约束的行为研究路线的机会.我们在整个实践中研究这些因素，因为实践塑造了反应选择并改变了潜在的操作。我们的DNFT模型捕捉到了这些变化，并对练习如何改变表现和神经激活做出了具体的预测。第一个因素涉及输入和输出方式的配对。以往的工作表明，反应选择过程的深刻影响如何配对的方式。我们探讨如何模式配对影响学习的一系列迁移实验，确定与实践相关的任务表征的变化轨迹。这些实验将检验DNFT的解释，并建立一个中央认知操作的理论框架，这对智能的、目标导向的行为至关重要。第二个关键因素是指标。我们的模型预测，刺激和反应指标应该在行为数据中产生相互作用，这一预测在我们最初的试点数据中得到了证实。虽然这是众所周知的，指标可以影响刺激或反应处理分开，这两个因素之间的相互作用是很难适应传统的符号帐户的反应选择。这些发现可以为度量编码的刺激-反应翻译过程提供直接证据。拟议的研究将产生新的方法来评估和理解中央操作。我们专注于正常，健康的成年人在实验环境中的表现，但我们的发现将对应用和基础研究产生广泛的影响。中枢运作理论的发展将推动与执行功能障碍相关的转化研究，这是许多精神和神经疾病的标志，包括阿尔茨海默病，精神分裂症和额叶损伤。 公共卫生相关性：本建议旨在发展一种反应选择理论，特别强调解释实践的重要作用和输入模态的配对（例如，眼睛对耳朵）和输出模态（例如，voice vs. hands）。反应选择过程是目标导向的人类行为的基础，通常是精神疾病的根源。该项目产生的新知识和方法创新将促进与衰老和执行功能障碍等临床综合征相关的转化研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Response selection is critical for successful functioning in the real world. When this ability is impaired (through brain damage or normal cognitive aging), numerous difficulties occur, such as perseverations and other action slips. The present proposal attempts to develop a general model of response selection to account for how stimulus inputs are transformed to in goal-based actions, and how properties of the stimuli and responses interact to affect behavior. The model we implement is based on dynamic neural field theory (DNFT) and operates in real time on subsymbolic representations. Moreover, the model readily simulates neural activation and thus makes predictions for neuroimaging experiments. We focus on two factors that have received scant attention in the response selection literature but are critical for understanding central operations and applying theory to real-world situations. We choose these factors because they are the points at which the proposed model makes clear predictions that are not made by traditional accounts of response selection. Moreover, they present the opportunity to establish new, theory- constraining lines of behavioral research. We examine these factors throughout practice, because practice shapes response selection and changes the underlying operations. Our DNFT model captures these changes and makes specific predictions regarding how practice should alter performance and neural activation. The first factor involves the pairings of input and output modalities. Previous work indicates that response selection processes are profoundly affected by how the modalities are paired. We explore how modalities pairings affect learning with a series of transfer experiments that identify the locus of the changes in the task representation associated with practice. These experiments will test the DNFT account and establish a theoretical framework of central cognitive operations, which are critical for intelligent, goal-oriented behavior. The second critical factor is metrics. Our model predicts that stimulus and response metrics should produce interactions in the behavioral data, and this prediction is borne out in our initial pilot data. While it is well-known that metrics can affect stimulus or response processing separately, interactions between the two factors are difficult for traditional symbolic accounts of response selection to accommodate. These findings can provide direct evidence for metrically coded stimulus-response translation processes. The proposed research will produce new approaches for evaluating and understanding central operations. We focus on the performance of normal, healthy adults in experimental settings, but our findings will have broad implications for both applied and basic research. The development of a theory of central operations will motivate translational research relating to executive dysfunction, a hallmark of many psychiatric and neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and frontal lobe damage. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The present proposal aims to develop a theory of response selection, with particular emphasis on explaining the important effects of practice and the pairings of input modality (e.g., eyes versus ears) and output modality (e.g., voice vs. hands). Response selection processes are fundamental to goal-directed human behaviors and are frequently the locus of mental illness. The new knowledge and methodological innovations emerging from this project will facilitate translational research relating to aging and clinical syndromes such as executive dysfunction.