Project description
Uncovering latent variables in animals’ decision-making
Animals adopt new behaviours in noisy environments, but the cognitive processes behind these changes are not clear. Previous studies have considered choice and reaction time (RT) but failed to detect strategy changes, while modern analyses with recurrent neural networks have detected some critical dynamics but failed to measure RTs. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the COG-RT project will study choice and RTs within a database containing information on decision-making tasks, together with brain activity recorded from the anterior cingulate cortex and striatum. In this way, latent variables (engagement, bias and urgency) can be detected in cognitively driven models.
Objective
Animals must adapt their behaviour in noisy environments under physiological and resource limits. Which latent cognitive processes drive these adaptations, and how they are implemented in cortical-striatal circuits central to control and motivation, remains incompletely understood. Classical cognitive models link choices and reaction times (RTs) to evidence, priors, or control demands, but they operate coarsely, averaging across conditions (e.g. costly vs. non-costly or model-based vs. model-free). This overlooks fine-grained, trial-by-trial strategy fluctuations that drive behaviour.
Recent work shows that recurrent neural networks (RNNs) can recover hidden, continuous decision dynamics from behaviour that standard models miss. In the International Brain Laboratory (IBL) task, these advances reveal multi-timescale history effects and slow fluctuations in engagement without heavy parametric assumptions. These studies establish RNNs as powerful descriptive models of cognition, yet current models largely focus on choices, neglecting RTs - a complementary marker of engagement, urgency, and control allocation.
This project will jointly model choices and RTs in the IBL dataset, containing hundreds of thousands of decisions with simultaneous whole-brain recordings, including anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and striatum, enabling direct comparisons with neural activity. Integrating choices with RTs within cognitively constrained models will yield interpretable latent variables capturing dynamics of cognitive markers such as engagement, bias, and urgency, thereby describing decision content and timing in a unified way. Finally, we will test where and when these latents are encoded in ACC, striatum, and brain-wide activity. This project will provide a clear, testable picture of how hidden strategies shape decisions over time and where they live in the brain.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
1400-038 LISBOA
Portugal
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.