Neurophysiology and Neurochemistry of Decision-Making

决策的神经生理学和神经化学

• 批准号: 7221375
• 负责人: ARWEN BL DECLAN
• 金额: $ 3.04万
• 依托单位: DUKE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-09-30 至 2008-09-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7221375
• 关键词: Macaca mulatta; behavior prediction; behavioral /social science research tag; brain electrical activity; brain metabolism; cingulate gyrus; decision making; dopamine; motivation; neural transmission; neurochemistry; neurophysiology; neuropsychology; neurotransmitter metabolism; predoctoral investigator; reinforcer; serotonin; stimulus /response; visual stimulus

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Various aspects of the decision-making process, such as attention, perception, valuation, and preferences, are abnormal in neuropsychological disorders. However, the neural machinery that mediates decision- making is poorly understood. Increased understanding of normal and altered components of decision- making has the potential to improve our understanding and treatment of diseases such as autism, schizophrenia, and addiction. The posterior cingulate cortex (CGp), an area of cortex with extensive connections to both decision-making (attentional, motivational) and visuomotor circuitry, responds to visual stimuli associated with rewards. Recent observations from our lab show that posterior cingulate neuronal activity is modulated by both reward magnitude and reward variance, in economic terms risk. These observations suggest that posterior cingulate cortex may respond to salient, or motivationally significant, events independent of overt orienting and, furthermore, that CGp neuronal activity should predict behavioral sensitivity to changes in external and internal decision-making contexts. By investigating these hypotheses, we aim to link neuronal activity with either external contextual variables like risk and relative expected value or components of the internal context such as serotonin and dopamine activity. We will use a series of visuomotor tasks to determine whether CGp responds to salient events in the absence of choice, visual saccades, or visual cues. We will then use a simple choice task to investigate the correlation between CGp activity and behavioral responses to changes in both external and internal variables. We will use well-established dietary depletion methods to modify the internal serotonergic and dopaminergic components of the internal neurochemical milieu. We are currently studying the basic neural mechanisms of decision-making by measuring activity from neurons in the posterior cingulate cortex of the brain in macaques performing eye movement-based tasks for fruit juice rewards. Decision-making is dysfunctional in diseases like schizophrenia, autism, addiction, and pathological gambling. Therefore, a better understanding of decision-making processes will improve our understanding of these neuropsychological diseases and contribute to the development of better treatments.

描述（由申请人提供）：决策过程的各个方面，例如注意力，感知，估值和偏好，在神经心理疾病中异常。但是，介导决策的神经机制知之甚少。对决策的正常成分和改变的成分的了解增加了我们对自闭症，精神分裂症和成瘾等疾病的理解和治疗的潜力。后扣带回皮层（CGP）是与决策（注意力，动机）和视觉运动电路的广泛连接的皮质区域，对与奖励相关的视觉刺激做出了反应。我们实验室的最新观察结果表明，后扣带回神经元活动受到奖励幅度和奖励方差的调节，从经济角度风险。这些观察结果表明，后扣带回皮层可能对明显或动机意义的事件做出反应，而与公开定向无关，此外，CGP神经元活性应预测对外部和内部决策环境变化的行为敏感性。通过研究这些假设，我们旨在将神经元活性与外部上下文变量（如风险和相对期望值或内部环境的相对期望值）（例如5-羟色胺和多巴胺活性）联系起来。我们将使用一系列视觉运动任务来确定在没有选择，视觉扫视或视觉提示的情况下，CGP是否响应显着事件。然后，我们将使用一个简单的选择任务来研究CGP活动与外部和内部变量变化的行为响应之间的相关性。我们将使用良好的饮食耗竭方法来修改内部神经化学环境的内部血清素能和多巴胺能成分。我们目前正在研究决策的基本神经机制，通过测量猕猴的后扣带回皮层的神经元的活性，从而执行基于眼动的果汁奖励的眼动任务。在精神分裂症，自闭症，成瘾和病理赌博等疾病中，决策是功能失调。因此，对决策过程的更好理解将改善我们对这些神经心理疾病的理解，并有助于发展更好的治疗。