Descripción del proyecto
Investigación de la relación entre la actividad encefálica endógena y las incoherencias en el comportamiento
En general, se supone que las personas toman decisiones coherentes en situaciones similares, pero unos investigaciones han demostrado que la toma de decisiones es intrínsecamente incoherente y que las desviaciones erráticas suelen estar asociadas a las enfermedades mentales. Las teorías sobre este asunto no explican adecuadamente el origen de dichas incoherencias. En el proyecto NeuroFlux, financiado con fondos europeos, se investigará la hipótesis de que las fluctuaciones encefálicas internas desempeñan una función en los patrones de comportamiento incoherentes e impulsivos. Se utilizará una innovadora técnica de neuroimagen para medir hasta qué punto las fluctuaciones endógenas de determinadas regiones del encéfalo afectan a la toma de decisiones y al comportamiento impulsivo. Este proyecto proporcionará una nueva comprensión del comportamiento humano y desvelará los procesos responsables de los trastornos mentales impulsivos.
Objetivo
Our societies are built on the premise that humans are rational agents who make decisions that are in line with their held beliefs. A central principle is that of choice consistency, i.e. that humans will make identical choices when facing the same problem. However, experimental work overwhelmingly demonstrates that humans are consistently inconsistent and that an exaggerated behavioural variability is a key feature of impulsive psychiatric disorders. The causes for these inconsistencies are unknown and economic theories and computational models fail to explain this omnipresent human characteristic. I propose that intrinsic fluctuations of brain activity are causing us to behave seemingly inconsistent, and the overarching aim of NeuroFlux is to examine how endogenous brain activity changes how we act and make decisions.
NeuroFlux will use a novel neuroimaging framework that I have recently developed and that allows to quantify whether and how strongly endogenous fluctuations in a specific brain area contribute to behaviour. I will use this cutting-edge technology to answer the following questions: (i) How do endogenous fluctuations in the dopaminergic midbrain influence decision making and learning? (ii) How do endogenous fluctuations in the noradrenergic midbrain influence decision making? (iii) Is impulsivity driven by an exaggerated brain-behaviour coupling? To address these questions, I will combine real-time functional MRI with pharmacological manipulations and transdiagnostic studies across three intertwined work packages.
NeuroFlux will reveal how the brain’s idle states drive and alter our behaviours. This project will provide a new computational understanding that no longer treats behavioural inconsistency as irrelevant noise but as a meaningful window into the brain’s inner workings. NeuroFlux thus has the potential to revolutionise how we understand human behaviour per se and may reveal the mechanisms underlying impulsive psychiatric disorders.
Ámbito científico
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-STG - Starting GrantInstitución de acogida
72074 Tuebingen
Alemania