Descrizione del progetto
Il ruolo dei circuiti cerebrali nei processi cognitivi complessi
Gli esseri umani possono associare esperienze e stimoli pregressi con particolari situazioni che li aiutano ad adattarsi ai cambiamenti ambientali e che inoltre consentono loro di prevedere eventi futuri. Tuttavia, non si sa ancora molto sui meccanismi coinvolti nella codifica e nell’archiviazione di questi complessi processi cognitivi. Il progetto HighMemory, finanziato dall’UE, si propone di verificare il ruolo dell’ippocampo e della corteccia nei processi di condizionamento di ordine più elevato, con l’applicazione di metodologie genetiche, farmacologiche, immaginografiche e comportamentali. I risultati sveleranno la regolazione del complesso comportamento cognitivo e aiuteranno a spiegare perché particolari stimoli possano respingere o attrarre, anche se non precedentemente associati a esiti negativi o positivi.
Obiettivo
Animals and humans adapt to changes in the environment through the encoding and storage of previous experiences. Although associative learning involving a reinforcer has been the major focus in the field of cognition, other forms of learning are gaining popularity as they are likely more relevant and frequent in human daily choices. Indeed, associations between non-reinforcing stimuli represent the most evolutionarily advanced way to increase the chances of predicting future events and adapting individuals’ behavior. Animals are also able to form these higher-order conditioning processes, but more research is needed to understand how the brain encode and store these complex cognitive processes. In this project, I propose to study the role of hippocampo-cortical circuits in higher-order conditioning processes. These processes explain why subjects are often repulsed or attracted by stimuli, which do not have intrinsic repellent or appealing value and they were never explicitly paired with negative or positive outcomes. A proposed explanation of these “ungrounded” aversion or attraction is that these stimuli were incidentally associated with other cues directly reinforced, through a process called mediated learning (ML). However, with increased incidental associations, the subjects acquire more information, allowing them to separate the real saliences of the different stimuli. Therefore, ML evolves into “reality testing”(RT), a behavioral process that has been even less studied. These processes involve multiple brain regions and are characterized by accessible phases, making them perfect models to study the circuit-level regulation of complex behavior. By using genetic, pharmacological, imaging and mouse behavioral approaches (sensory preconditioning), HighMemory proposes to characterize at macro- (brain regions), meso- (cell-types) and micro-scale (activity changes), the causal involvement of hippocampo-cortical projections in higher-order conditioning processes.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-STG - Starting GrantIstituzione ospitante
08003 Barcelona
Spagna