Final Report Summary - SPEED (Speeded decision-making in the basal ganglia: An integrative model-based approach)
Speeded decision-making is essential for adaptive behavior in an impatient world. Fight or flight, stop or go, left or right, shoot or pass, peanut butter or jelly: our environment constantly demands decisions. Choosing prematurely can result in death, traffic accidents, collisions, lost games, and a distasteful sandwich -- a similar fate awaits those who ponder over their decisions for too long. Our approach focuses on the role of the basal ganglia (BG; a structure deep in the brain) in speeded decision-making. Brain measurements and neurocomputational models generally suggest that the BG implement a generic action-selection mechanism that is vital to speeded decision-making. This proposal aims to reduce this uncertainty by a model-based neuroscience approach, in which mathematical models of behavior are used to quantify inter- and intraindividual differences in the psychological processes that underlie speeded decision-making. Our findings contribute to neurocomputational theories of BG networks, and will ultimately translate to the clinical neurosciences including patients with Parkinson’s disease and obsessive compulsive disorder.