Physiological and neurophysiological mechanisms for exploration and mistakes

探索和错误的生理和神经生理机制

• 批准号: RGPIN-2020-05577
• 负责人: Ebitz, R
• 金额: $ 2.77万
• 依托单位: Université de Montréal
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=740667
• 关键词: Physiological; neurophysiological; mechanisms; exploration; mistakes

Why do we make mistakes? We have the capacity to identify the most rewarding course of action, yet we do not always choose it. Sometimes, "mistakes" are not really mistakes, but rather a form of exploration-meaning a drive to discover new opportunities and learn about the world. In an uncertain environment, some exploration is critical, even if it does not produce the most rewarding choice in the moment. However, my recent work suggests that the same exploratory mechanisms can cause mistakes when mistakes have no conceivable benefit. I believe that this happens, in part, because our brains evolved for a world that is always uncertain, where a little exploration was almost always advantageous. The long-term goal of this research program is to elucidate how endogenous, physiological processes alter how the brain responds in identical circumstances. This proposal will lay the foundation for this goal by investigating how endogenous, physiological processes influence exploration. The central hypothesis of this proposal is that exploratory mechanisms cause us to make mistakes both when they are useful and when they are not because exploration is driven by endogenous, arousal-linked fluctuations in the tuning of decision-making circuits. We will test different aspects of this hypothesis in two human behavioral aims and one primate electrophysiology aim. Our approach is unified by the observation that a physiological exploratory mechanisms would operate in real time, meaning it would vary over the seconds or minutes across which our bodies vary. In contrast, most current models of decision-making assume that behavior only varies in trial time-in units of discrete task events like trials and reward outcomes. Aim 1 will first determine whether exploration occurs in real time or trial time by manipulating the link between trial time and real time and asking whether this manipulation systematically changes the timing of exploration. Then, expanding on previous work by myself and others that links mistakes to autonomic arousal, Aim 2 will determine whether endogenous, real time cycles of arousal are sufficient to explain temporal variation in exploration. Finally, Aim 3 will harness our capacity for large scale recordings from populations of neurons to determine whether real-time fluctuations in arousal predict the disruptions in neuronal tuning that we find during periods of exploration. If my central hypothesis is correct, these studies will show that mistakes emerge from natural fluctuations in arousal and arousal-linked patterns of brain activity. Regardless of outcome, these studies will test an implicit assumption of many decision-making models and establish a research program at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and physiology that my team and I will build on for decades as we elucidate how different aspects of cognition-including working memory, attention, and executive control-are changed by endogenous, real time physiological processes.

我们为什么会犯错误？我们有能力确定最有价值的行动方案，但我们并不总是选择它。有时，“错误”并不是真正的错误，而是一种探索形式——意味着发现新机会和了解世界的动力。在不确定的环境中，一些探索是至关重要的，即使它不会产生当前最有价值的选择。然而，我最近的工作表明，当错误没有任何可想象的好处时，相同的探索机制可能会导致错误。我相信这种情况发生的部分原因是我们的大脑是为一个总是不确定的世界而进化的，在这个世界中进行一点探索几乎总是有利的。该研究计划的长期目标是阐明内源性生理过程如何改变大脑在相同情况下的反应。该提案将通过研究内源性生理过程如何影响探索来为这一目标奠定基础。该提议的中心假设是，探索机制会导致我们在有用和无用时犯错误，因为探索是由决策回路调整中与唤醒相关的内生波动驱动的。我们将在两个人类行为目标和一个灵长类动物电生理学目标中测试这一假设的不同方面。我们的方法是通过观察生理探索机制将实时运行来统一的，这意味着它会随着我们身体变化的几秒或几分钟而变化。相比之下，大多数当前的决策模型假设行为仅在试验时间内发生变化，以离散任务事件（如试验和奖励结果）为单位。目标 1 将首先通过操纵试验时间和实时之间的联系来确定探索是发生在实时还是试验时间内，并询问这种操纵是否系统地改变了探索的时间安排。然后，扩展我自己和其他人之前将错误与自主唤醒联系起来的工作，目标 2 将确定内源性、实时的唤醒周期是否足以解释探索中的时间变化。最后，Aim 3 将利用我们对神经元群体进行大规模记录的能力来确定唤醒的实时波动是否可以预测我们在探索期间发现的神经元调谐中断。如果我的中心假设是正确的，这些研究将表明，错误是由于觉醒和与觉醒相关的大脑活动模式的自然波动而产生的。无论结果如何，这些研究都将测试许多决策模型的隐含假设，并在认知神经科学和生理学的交叉点建立一个研究计划，我和我的团队将在此基础上建立数十年，因为我们阐明了认知的不同方面（包括工作记忆、注意力和执行控制——会被内源性、实时的生理过程改变。