scholarly journals Comparing two neurocognitive models of self-control during dietary decisions

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 957-966 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Cosme ◽  
Rita M Ludwig ◽  
Elliot T Berkman

Abstract Self-control is the process of favoring abstract, distal goals over concrete, proximal goals during decision-making and is an important factor in health and well-being. We directly compare two prominent neurocognitive models of human self-control with the goal of identifying which, if either, best describes behavioral and neural data of dietary decisions in a large sample of overweight and obese adults motivated to eat more healthfully. We extracted trial-by-trial estimates of neural activity during incentive-compatible choice from three brain regions implicated in self-control, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, ventral striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex and assessed evidence for the dual-process and value-based choice models of self-control using multilevel modeling. Model comparison tests revealed that the value-based choice model outperformed the dual-process model and best fit the observed data. These results advance scientific knowledge of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying self-control-relevant decision-making and are consistent with a value-based choice model of self-control.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Cosme ◽  
Rita M. Ludwig ◽  
Elliot Berkman

Self-control is the process of favoring abstract, distal goals over concrete, proximal goals during decision making, and is an important factor in health and well-being. We directly compare two prominent neurocognitive models of human self-control with the goal of identifying which, if either, best describes behavioral and neural data of dietary decisions in a large sample of overweight and obese adults motivated to eat more healthfully. We extracted trial-by-trial estimates of neural activity during incentive-compatible choice from three brain regions implicated in self-control, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, ventral striatum, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and assessed evidence for the dual-process and value-based choice models of self-control using multilevel modeling. Model comparison tests revealed that the value-based choice model outperformed the dual-process model, and best fit the observed data. These results advance scientific knowledge of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying self-control relevant decision making and are consistent with a value-based choice model of self-control.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Olya Hakobyan ◽  
Sen Cheng

Abstract Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis is the standard tool for studying recognition memory. In particular, the curvilinearity and the y-offset of recognition ROC curves have been interpreted as indicative of either memory strength (single-process models) or different memory processes (dual-process model). The distinction between familiarity and recollection has been widely studied in cognitive neuroscience in a variety of conditions, including lesions of different brain regions. We develop a computational model that explicitly shows how performance in recognition memory is affected by a complex and, as yet, underappreciated interplay of various factors, such as stimulus statistics, memory processing, and decision-making. We demonstrate that (1) the factors in the model affect recognition ROC curves in unexpected ways, (2) fitting R and F parameters according to the dual-process model is not particularly useful for understanding the underlying processes, and (3) the variability of recognition ROC curves and the controversies they have caused might be due to the uncontrolled variability in the contributing factors. Although our model is abstract, its functional components can be mapped onto brain regions, which are involved in corresponding functions. This enables us to reproduce and interpret in a coherent framework the diverse effects on recognition memory that have been reported in patients with frontal and hippocampal lesions. To conclude, our work highlights the importance of the rich interplay of a variety of factors in driving recognition memory performance, which has to be taken into account when interpreting recognition ROC curves.


Author(s):  
Lee Peyton ◽  
Alfredo Oliveros ◽  
Doo-Sup Choi ◽  
Mi-Hyeon Jang

AbstractPsychiatric illness is a prevalent and highly debilitating disorder, and more than 50% of the general population in both middle- and high-income countries experience at least one psychiatric disorder at some point in their lives. As we continue to learn how pervasive psychiatric episodes are in society, we must acknowledge that psychiatric disorders are not solely relegated to a small group of predisposed individuals but rather occur in significant portions of all societal groups. Several distinct brain regions have been implicated in neuropsychiatric disease. These brain regions include corticolimbic structures, which regulate executive function and decision making (e.g., the prefrontal cortex), as well as striatal subregions known to control motivated behavior under normal and stressful conditions. Importantly, the corticolimbic neural circuitry includes the hippocampus, a critical brain structure that sends projections to both the cortex and striatum to coordinate learning, memory, and mood. In this review, we will discuss past and recent discoveries of how neurobiological processes in the hippocampus and corticolimbic structures work in concert to control executive function, memory, and mood in the context of mental disorders.


2014 ◽  
Vol 369 (1655) ◽  
pp. 20130473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Larsen ◽  
John P. O'Doherty

While there is a growing body of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) evidence implicating a corpus of brain regions in value-based decision-making in humans, the limited temporal resolution of fMRI cannot address the relative temporal precedence of different brain regions in decision-making. To address this question, we adopted a computational model-based approach to electroencephalography (EEG) data acquired during a simple binary choice task. fMRI data were also acquired from the same participants for source localization. Post-decision value signals emerged 200 ms post-stimulus in a predominantly posterior source in the vicinity of the intraparietal sulcus and posterior temporal lobe cortex, alongside a weaker anterior locus. The signal then shifted to a predominantly anterior locus 850 ms following the trial onset, localized to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and lateral prefrontal cortex. Comparison signals between unchosen and chosen options emerged late in the trial at 1050 ms in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, suggesting that such comparison signals may not be directly associated with the decision itself but rather may play a role in post-decision action selection. Taken together, these results provide us new insights into the temporal dynamics of decision-making in the brain, suggesting that for a simple binary choice task, decisions may be encoded predominantly in posterior areas such as intraparietal sulcus, before shifting anteriorly.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seongmin A. Park ◽  
Douglas S. Miller ◽  
Erie D. Boorman

ABSTRACTGeneralizing experiences to guide decision making in novel situations is a hallmark of flexible behavior. It has been hypothesized such flexibility depends on a cognitive map of an environment or task, but directly linking the two has proven elusive. Here, we find that discretely sampled abstract relationships between entities in an unseen two-dimensional (2-D) social hierarchy are reconstructed into a unitary 2-D cognitive map in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. We further show that humans utilize a grid-like code in several brain regions, including entorhinal cortex and medial prefrontal cortex, for inferred direct trajectories between entities in the reconstructed abstract space during discrete decisions. Moreover, these neural grid-like codes in the entorhinal cortex predict neural decision value computations in the medial prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction area during choice. Collectively, these findings show that grid-like codes are used by the human brain to infer novel solutions, even in abstract and discrete problems, and suggest a general mechanism underpinning flexible decision making and generalization.


eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreea Oliviana Diaconescu ◽  
Madeline Stecy ◽  
Lars Kasper ◽  
Christopher J Burke ◽  
Zoltan Nagy ◽  
...  

Decision making requires integrating knowledge gathered from personal experiences with advice from others. The neural underpinnings of the process of arbitrating between information sources has not been fully elucidated. In this study, we formalized arbitration as the relative precision of predictions, afforded by each learning system, using hierarchical Bayesian modeling. In a probabilistic learning task, participants predicted the outcome of a lottery using recommendations from a more informed advisor and/or self-sampled outcomes. Decision confidence, as measured by the number of points participants wagered on their predictions, varied with our definition of arbitration as a ratio of precisions. Functional neuroimaging demonstrated that arbitration signals were independent of decision confidence and involved modality-specific brain regions. Arbitrating in favor of self-gathered information activated the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the midbrain, whereas arbitrating in favor of social information engaged the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. These findings indicate that relative precision captures arbitration between social and individual learning systems at both behavioral and neural levels.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seung-Lark Lim ◽  
J. Bradley C. Cherry ◽  
Ann M. Davis ◽  
S. N. Balakrishnan ◽  
Oh-Ryeong Ha ◽  
...  

Abstract As children grow, they gradually learn how to make decisions independently. However, decisions like choosing healthy but less-tasty foods can be challenging for children whose self-regulation and executive cognitive functions are still maturing. We propose a computational decision-making process in which children estimate their mother’s choices for them as well as their individual food preferences. By employing functional magnetic resonance imaging during real food choices, we find that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) encodes children’s own preferences and the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) encodes the projected mom’s choices for them at the time of children’s choice. Also, the left dlPFC region shows an inhibitory functional connectivity with the vmPFC at the time of children’s own choice. Our study suggests that in part, children utilize their perceived caregiver’s choices when making choices for themselves, which may serve as an external regulator of decision-making, leading to optimal healthy decisions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 1900362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayaka Ando ◽  
Stuart B. Mazzone ◽  
Michael J. Farrell

Cough is important for airway defence, and studies in healthy animals and humans have revealed multiple brain networks intimately involved in the perception of airway irritation, cough induction and cough suppression. Changes in cough sensitivity and/or the ability to suppress cough accompany pulmonary pathologies, suggesting a level of plasticity is possible in these central neural circuits. However, little is known about how persistent inputs from the lung might modify the brain processes regulating cough.In the present study, we used human functional brain imaging to investigate the central neural responses that accompany an altered cough sensitivity in cigarette smokers.In nonsmokers, inhalation of the airway irritant capsaicin induced a transient urge-to-cough associated with the activation of a distributed brain network that included sensory, prefrontal and motor cortical regions. Cigarette smokers demonstrated significantly higher thresholds for capsaicin-induced urge-to-cough, consistent with a reduced sensitivity to airway irritation. Intriguingly, this was accompanied by increased activation in brain regions known to be involved in both cough sensory processing (primary sensorimotor cortex) and cough suppression (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the midbrain nucleus cuneiformis). Activations in the prefrontal cortex were highest among participants with the least severe smoking behaviour, whereas those in the midbrain correlated with more severe smoking behaviour.These outcomes suggest that smoking-induced sensitisation of central cough neural circuits is offset by concurrently enhanced central suppression. Furthermore, central suppression mechanisms may evolve with the severity of smoke exposure, changing from initial prefrontal inhibition to more primitive midbrain processes as exposure increases.


2010 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia E. Richardson

The intent of this study was to examine if length of caregiving was associated with older widowers' adjustment to bereavement and to identify factors, based on principles underlying the Dual Process Model of Bereavement, that might mitigate the potential adverse effects of time spent caring. Two-hundred men over the age of 60 and in the second year of bereavement were identified from death records of older women who had died within a 12-month period. Interviews lasted about 2 hours and focused on widowers' experiences surrounding their wives' deaths along with questions about social support, health, retirement, and other demographic information. The Bradburn Affect Scale was used to measure positive and negative affect. Restoration-oriented coping, such as starting new relationships and activities were measured. These variables included extent of family contact, number of friends, having a confidante, involvement with neighbors, and participation in sports and clubs. Time since death and demographic variables were used as controls. Hierarchical linear regression was conducted on positive and negative affect after which potentially moderating effects were analyzed. Results indicated that the most important influences on negative affect were time since death, ethnicity, and participation in clubs while for positive affect the most significant factors included length of caregiving, number of friends, and having a confidante. Although no interaction effects were significant, patterns emerged. Implications for applying the DPM with older bereaved men are made.


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