The Role of Medial Prefrontal Cortex in Context-Dependent Valuation and Decision Processes

内侧前额叶皮层在上下文相关的评估和决策过程中的作用

• 批准号: 10658093
• 负责人: Joseph T. McGuire
• 金额: $ 58.19万
• 依托单位: BOSTON UNIVERSITY (CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS)
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-05-15 至 2028-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10658093
• 关键词: Acceleration; Address; Anatomy; Architecture; Basal Ganglia; Behavior; Behavioral; Brain; Calibration; Cell Nucleus; Clinical; Cognitive; Collaborations; Complex; Computer Models; Computing Methodologies; Data; Data Set; Decision Making; Dissociation; Environment; Event; Failure; Feedback; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Future; Goals; Health; Human; Human Volunteers; Impulsivity; Individual; Laboratories; Learning; Maps; Masks; Measures; Medial; Memory; Mental Health; Methods; Modeling; Morphology; Motivation; Neuroanatomy; Outcome; Participant; Pattern; Performance; Persons; Population; Predictive Factor; Prefrontal Cortex; Process; Property; Protocols documentation; Psychopathology; Recovery; Reproducibility; Research; Research Personnel; Reversal Learning; Rewards; Role; Running; Series; Signal Transduction; Structure; System; Temporal Lobe; Testing; Time; Training; Translating; Update; Validation; Variant; Visual; candidate identification; cognitive process; computerized tools; cost; experience; experimental study; falls; flexibility; high reward; improved; inter-individual variation; neural; neuroimaging; neuromechanism; neurophysiology; novel; operation; predictive modeling; response; spatiotemporal; success; theories

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Decisions in complex environments rely on context-sensitive processes for estimating the subjective value of available alternatives. A course of action that would be beneficial in one context might be disadvantageous in another. Context has an especially pronounced impact on how time and delay factor into decisions, with different levels of patience favored in different environments. Understanding the normative cognitive and neural mechanisms that support context-appropriate calibration of decision processes is a critical step toward understanding the seemingly impulsive or dysregulated decisions that occur in mental health conditions. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is thought to contribute to integrative, context-sensitive estimates of subjective value via interactions with brain systems involved in memory, motivation, and time estimation. However, person-to-person variability in the anatomy and functional topography of vmPFC has limited our ability to target precise and meaningful cortical subregions in mechanistic studies of its normative role or in studies of clinical populations. The present project seeks to identify and characterize individual-level cortical subregions engaged during value-based decisions that require event-specific integration of temporal and contextual information. The project is a collaboration among investigators with expertise using neuroimaging and computational methods to study value-based decision making, context representation, and memory. Aim 1 will use a foraging-like experimental paradigm in which the value of engaging with a distinctive item depends on an episodic assessment of how recently it was previously encountered, with either recent (“fresh”) or non- recent (“ripe”) items having greater reward value in different contexts. We will use multi-session fMRI with a vmPFC-optimized acquisition protocol to identify individual-specific cortical regions that show activity modulated by recency-dependent value irrespective of physical item features or recency per se. We hypothesize that valuation effects will emerge in vmPFC subregions that are reproducible within-individual and have a systematic profile of functional connectivity with the medial temporal lobe and other brain structures. Aim 2 will develop a theoretical computational model of cognitive processes for flexibly translating episodic temporal information into decision value. We will test and refine the model on the basis of behavioral data and will test for model-predicted representations in our own fMRI data and other existing data sets. Aim 3 will examine situations in which patterns of context-dependent value must be disengaged and reinstated on the basis of feedback in a changing environment, and will use fMRI to examine signals associated with contextual updating in vmPFC and medial temporal lobes. Results from the project will advance our fundamental understanding of brain processes that support contextually adaptive decision behavior in complex environments and will lead to new methods for identifying meaningful cortical analysis targets in future studies of health conditions characterized by maladaptive patterns of decision making.

项目摘要/摘要 复杂环境中的决策依赖上下文敏感的过程来估计主题价值 可用的替代方案。在某种情况下将有益的行动方案在某种程度上可能是不利的 其他。上下文对时间和延迟因素如何决策有特别明显的影响， 在不同的环境中受到不同耐心的水平。了解正常的认知和中立 支持上下文校准决策过程的机制是迈向的关键一步 了解在心理健康状况下发生的看似冲动或失调的决定。 腹前额叶皮层（VMPFC）被认为有助于综合的，上下文敏感的估计值 通过与记忆，动机和时间估计涉及的大脑系统相互作用的主观价值。 但是，VMPFC的解剖结构和功能形态的人对人的变异性限制了我们的 在其正常作用的机理研究中，能够靶向精确和有意义的皮质子区域 临床人群的研究。本项目旨在识别和表征个体水平的皮质 在基于价值的决策中参与的子区域，这些决策需要特定于事件的临时整合和 上下文信息。该项目是使用神经影像学专业知识的调查员之间的合作 以及研究基于价值的决策，上下文表示和记忆的计算方法。目标1 将使用类似觅食的实验范式，其中参与独特项目的价值取决于 在一集评估中，最近遇到了它，最近（“新鲜”）或非 - 最近（“成熟”）项目在不同情况下具有更大的奖励价值。我们将使用多演奏fMRI与 VMPFC优化的采集方案，以识别显示活动的个体特异性皮质区域 无论物理项目特征或新近度是否与新近相关的价值调节。我们 假设该价值效应将在个人内部可重现的VMPFC子区域中出现 具有与内侧临时叶和其他大脑结构的功能连通性的系统概况。 AIM 2将开发一个理论计算模型的认知过程，以灵活翻译情节 临时信息到决策价值。我们将根据行为数据测试和完善模型，并 将在我们自己的fMRI数据和其他现有数据集中测试模型预测的表示。目标3意志 检查情况，必须将与上下文相关价值的模式脱离并恢复 在不断变化的环境中反馈的基础，并将使用fMRI检查与上下文相关的信号 更新VMPFC和内侧临时爱情。该项目的结果将推进我们的基本 了解支持复杂的上下文自适应决策行为的大脑过程 环境，将导致新的方法在未来的研究中识别有意义的皮质分析目标 健康状况的特征是不良适应的决策模式。