NRSC 2249 - Cognitive Control

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Neuroscience

42 Terms

1

mammalian PFC

  • present in all mammals, but larger in primates

    • more expansion in white matter (axons) than gray (cell bodies)

  • human-unique cognitive capabilities more about connections than size

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2

adult human PFC

  • massively interconnected network:

    • motor, perceptual, limbic (memory/emotion)

    • reciprocal with parietal and temporal

    • thalamus → PFC → basal ganglia, cerebellum, brainstem nuclei

    • cortical and subcortical areas

  • coordinating and integrating information

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3

subdivisions of the PFC

lateral prefrontal, frontal pole, orbitofrontal, medial frontal

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4

lateral PFC

  • executive function: strategic planning, complex decisions, multiple goals

  • behavioral control: behavioral rules, instinct inhibition, selective attention

  • abstract knowledge

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5

frontal pole

  • complex processes: abstract thinking, decision-making, integrating information, long-term planning

  • social cognition: understanding other perspectives, self-reflection

  • hypothetical scenarios

  • most anterior in frontal lobe

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6

orbitofrontal cortex

  • emotional regulation: reward vs. punishments, emotional value of stimuli, impulse control

  • social behavior: empathy, social nuances, social interactions

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7

medial frontal cortex

  • ACC: selective attention, error detection, risk vs. reward

  • rational functioning: logical thinking, problem-solving

  • emotional regulation: empathy, emotional awareness and processing

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8

ventral-dorsal gradient

  • mirrors what (ventral) vs how (dorsal) distinctions of visual pathways

    • ventral: details about objects

    • dorsal: planning and executing actions

  • allows for integration of cognitive processes

  • reflects hierarchical organization of brain

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9

anterior-posterior gradient

  • anterior: abstract concepts

  • posterior: concrete tasks

    • posterior PFC: working memory

    • PMA: translation of abstract intentions into actions

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10

lateral-medial gradient

  • source of information affecting working memory

    • lateral: external cues, integrating external information

    • medial: internal drives, emotional states

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11

PFC lobotomy

  • aimed to treat illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, epilepsy

  • patients experienced less spontaneity, responsiveness, emotional dullness, narrowed intellectual capacity

    • emotionally blunted, impacted IQ

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12

frontotemporal dementia

  • degeneration (atrophy) of frontal and temporal lobes

    • more pronounced sulci, shrunken gyri

  • significant changes to personality and social behaviors

  • associated with various aphasias

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13

behavioral variant FTD (bvFTD)

  • most prevalent form of FTD

  • changes in personality, apathy, loss of empathy, disinhibition, deficits in complex thinking

  • may involve progressive semantic dementia

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14

PFC lesion studies

  • focal injuries to prefrontal cortex

  • often mirror behavior of bvFTD

  • may be difficult to diagnose based on everyday

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15

common deficits in cognitive control

  • bilateral lesions result in severe impairments

  • deficits in cognitive control / executive function associated with: depression, schizophrenia, OCD, ADHD

  • external factors: stress, emotional distress, poor health

  • drug addiction disrupts PFC functioning

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16

Wisconsin Card Sort

  • psychological assessment tool used to evaluate cognitive flexibility and problem-solving

  • participants asked to sort cards based on a changing rule from trial and error

  • impairment with damage to dorsolateral and superior medial PFC

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17

n-back test

  • participants required to press a button upon repeated stimulus: requires maintenance and refreshing of working memory

  • increase in LPFC activity with increase in complexity

    • role in active manipulation of info in working memory

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18

maintenance (working memory)

holding task-relevant information in awareness

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19

manipulation (working memory)

interacting with held information, working towards a goal

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20

working memory

  • hindered with damage to the LPFC

  • maintenance of task-relevant info and manipulation towards goal

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21

delayed-response task

  • used to measure working memory

  • monkeys must remember location of food after a delay without external cues (working)

  • association of a consistent visual cue requires LTM

    • not impaired with damage to the LPFC

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22

what-where cells

  • specialized cells within the LPFC (about half of cells)

    • what: respond to specific objects during delay

    • where: respond to specific locations during delay

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23

neural basis of delayed-response task

  • lateral PFC sustains representation of task goal

    • rises during encoding, remains high during delay, extends to retrieval period

  • temporal cortex rises earlier and drops during delay period

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24

rule-switching (working memory)

  • responsiveness of PFC cells is adaptable: same cells can shift responsiveness to new set of stimuli

  • distinction from IT cortex: maintain selectivity regardless of task demands

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25

decisions can be…

  • goal oriented: based on assessment of outcome

  • habitual: independent of immediate rewards

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26

theories about decision making can be…

  • normative: how people ought to make decisions, often fails to predict actual behavior

  • descriptive: what people do vs. what they should do

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27

decision making can be…

  • model-based: based on internal representations of the world

  • model-free: direct stimulus-response mappings

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28

external factors of decision-making

commodity, quantity, delay, risk, ambiguity, cost

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29

internal factors of decision-making

motivation, patience, risk attitude, ambiguity attitude

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30

temporal discounting

  • tendency in decision-making to value immediate rewards over future ones

    • varies widely among individuals

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31

expected value (EV)

average outcome of a risky event when considering all possible outcomes and probabilities

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32

neural basis of value (decision-making)

  • patients with OFC damage exhibits damage in decision-making

  • not willing to wait for better rewards, prefer immediate outcomes

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33

brain structures associated with reward

  • basal ganglia, hypothalamus, amygdala

  • dopamine: substantia nigra, ventral regimental area

    • related more to the anticipation/expectation of a reward than the actual amount or magnitude of reward

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34

reward prediction error (RPE)

  • thought to be encoded by DA neurons in SN and VTA

  • difference between expected and received rewards

    • guides learning and decision making based on rewards

  • diminished response when expectation aligns with outcome

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35

GABA neurons (reward)

  • sends inhibitory signal to DA neurons

  • signals reward expectancy

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36

challenge to DA RPE

  • DA activity could code consequences of prediction and learning: reflect salience/desirability

    • valence neurons (VTA): increase activity to stimuli predictive of a reward, similar to RPE

    • salience neurons (SN): increase activity with reinforcement probability

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37

flexibility

  • ability to adapt to changes in the environment and update action plans in accordance

  • relies on PFC, ACC, basal ganglia, and thalamus

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38

filtering task-relevant information

  • choosing what to pay attention to and ignoring irrelevant tasks

  • requires focusing attention on perceptual features or informarion

  • lateral PFC

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39

inhibitory control

  • ability to change when about to take an action

    • activity in right inferior frontal cortex when about to abort a planned response for successful and failed stop

    • activity in motor cortex for go and failed stop, successful stop peaks later

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40

ACC: executive attention hypothesis

  • MFC and ACC serve as top level of attentional hierarchy, coordinating activity across attention systems

  • empirical support: increased activity during divided attention, changes as attention demands decrease

  • critiques: no specification of recruitment of ACC or kinds of representations, unclear how is used for cognitive control

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41

ACC: error detection hypothesis

  • ACC is involved in monitoring behavior through error detection to increase or reallocate cognitive control

  • empirical support: activity correlated with occurrence of errors

  • critiques: activity not limited to errors, feedback-negativity could be unexpected outcome rather than error

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42

ACC: response conflict hypothesis

  • ACC and MFC assess response conflict, which is high in unfamiliar or complex situations

  • empirical evidence: LPFC reflects degree of difficulty for selection/task; ACC reflects degree of response conflict

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