Descripción del proyecto
Explicar la incoherencia humana
Las personas toman decisiones diferentes al abordar las mismas opciones. Esta variabilidad de las respuestas humanas es el objeto de muchos estudios y teorías. Desde una perspectiva cognitiva y económica, esto puede deberse al ruido imbuido durante el proceso de toma de decisiones. Las últimas investigaciones sobre el comportamiento sugieren que dicho ruido también podría surgir durante el proceso de aprendizaje. Con todo, el mecanismo neuronal de la interferencia del aprendizaje aún no ha sido estudiado. El proyecto financiado con fondos europeos learnNoise llevará a cabo una investigación pionera sobre el papel del sistema locus cerúleo-noradrenalina (LC-NA) en la interferencia del aprendizaje. Se utilizará el innovador marco de resonancia magnética funcional en tiempo real para comprobar si la actividad del locus cerúleo afecta directamente a la interferencia del aprendizaje. El proyecto brindará nuevas explicaciones para los mecanismos neurobiológicos, computacionales y psiquiátricos de la toma de decisiones incoherentes en los seres humanos.
Objetivo
Human behavior is inherently variable. Even when faced with the same exact choice options, we often take different actions. The causes for this inconsistency are unknown, but economic and cognitive theories assume this is due to noise that is injected when making a decision. However, I have recently demonstrated that noise might not just arise during the decision process, but that the learning process itself (i.e update of internal representations based on feedback) is subject to substantial and meaningful noise. Concretely, I have shown that noise during learning accounts for the majority of what is traditionally reported as ‘decision noise’. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this learning noise remains unknown. In this fellowship, I will examine the contributions of the locus coeruleus-noradrenaline (LC-NA) system to this learning noise. NA has previously been associated with decision noise and here I will test whether activity in the LC is the driving factor behind learning noise. I will use a cutting-edge real-time fMRI framework that allows to causally test whether ongoing LC activity directly influences learning noise. Moreover, I will examine whether this learning noise is relevant to impulsivity, which has previously been implicated in decision noise. This fellowship has the potential to overthrown the traditional view on behavioral variability in decision making and will provide a novel neurobiological, computational and psychiatric grounding for understanding why humans are consistently inconsistent.
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Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinador
WC1E 6BT London
Reino Unido