scholarly journals The control of epistemic curiosity in the human brain

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romain Ligneul ◽  
Martial Mermillod ◽  
Tiffany Morisseau
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Ventral Striatum ◽  
Temporal Evolution ◽  
Predictive Coding ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Integrative Model ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Fundamental Relationship ◽  
Epistemic Curiosity

AbstractEpistemic curiosity (EC) is a cornerstone of human cognition that contributes to the actualization of our cognitive potential by stimulating a myriad of information-seeking behaviours. Yet, its fundamental relationship with uncertainty remains poorly understood, which limits our ability to predict within- and between-individual variability in the willingness to acquire knowledge. Here, a two-step stochastic trivia quiz designed to induce curiosity and manipulate answer uncertainty provided behavioural and neural evidence for an integrative model of EC inspired from predictive coding. More precisely, our behavioural data indicated an inverse relationship between average surprise and EC levels, which depended upon hemodynamic activity in the rostrolateral prefrontal cortex from one trial to another and from one individual to another. Complementary, the elicitation of epistemic surprise and the relief of acute curiosity states were respectively related to ventromedial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum activity. Taken together, our results account for the temporal evolution of EC over time, as well as for the interplay of EC, prior knowledge and surprise in controlling memory gain.

The role of the anterior prefrontal cortex in human cognition

Nature ◽  
10.1038/20178 ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 399 (6732) ◽  
pp. 148-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Etienne Koechlin ◽  
Gianpaolo Basso ◽  
Pietro Pietrini ◽  
Seth Panzer ◽  
Jordan Grafman
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Anterior Prefrontal Cortex

Pathology, Phenomenology and the Dopamine Hypothesis of Schizophrenia

1987 ◽  
Vol 151 (3) ◽  
pp. 288-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. McKenna
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Basal Ganglia ◽  
Functional Role ◽  
Ventral Striatum ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Schizophrenic Symptom ◽  
Dopamine Hypothesis ◽  
Dopamine Innervation

The dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia implies that positive schizophrenic symptoms should be understandable by reference to brain structures receiving a dopamine innervation, or in terms of the functional role of dopamine itself. The basal ganglia, ventral striatum, septo-hippocampal system, and prefrontal cortex, sites of mesotelencephalic dopamine innervation, are examined and it is argued that their dysfunction could form the basis of particular schizophrenic symptom classes. The postulated involvement of dopamine in reinforcement processes might further assist such interpretations. This type of analysis can be extended to other categories of schizophrenic psychopathology.

scholarly journals Author response: Capturing the temporal evolution of choice across prefrontal cortex

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence T Hunt ◽  
Timothy EJ Behrens ◽  
Takayuki Hosokawa ◽  
Jonathan D Wallis ◽  
Steven W Kennerley
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Temporal Evolution ◽  
Author Response

scholarly journals Fear signaling in the prelimbic-amygdala circuit: a computational modeling and recording study

2013 ◽  
Vol 110 (4) ◽  
pp. 844-861 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandeep Pendyam ◽  
Christian Bravo-Rivera ◽  
Anthony Burgos-Robles ◽  
Francisco Sotres-Bayon ◽  
Gregory J. Quirk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Conditioned Fear ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Biophysical Model ◽  
Human Homolog ◽  
Lateral Amygdala ◽  
Internal Inhibition ◽  
Β Blocker

The acquisition and expression of conditioned fear depends on prefrontal-amygdala circuits. Auditory fear conditioning increases the tone responses of lateral amygdala neurons, but the increase is transient, lasting only a few hundred milliseconds after tone onset. It was recently reported that that the prelimbic (PL) prefrontal cortex transforms transient lateral amygdala input into a sustained PL output, which could drive fear responses via projections to the lateral division of basal amygdala (BL). To explore the possible mechanisms involved in this transformation, we developed a large-scale biophysical model of the BL-PL network, consisting of 850 conductance-based Hodgkin-Huxley-type cells, calcium-based learning, and neuromodulator effects. The model predicts that sustained firing in PL can be derived from BL-induced release of dopamine and norepinephrine that is maintained by PL-BL interconnections. These predictions were confirmed with physiological recordings from PL neurons during fear conditioning with the selective β-blocker propranolol and by inactivation of BL with muscimol. Our model suggests that PL has a higher bandwidth than BL, due to PL's decreased internal inhibition and lower spiking thresholds. It also suggests that variations in specific microcircuits in the PL-BL interconnection can have a significant impact on the expression of fear, possibly explaining individual variability in fear responses. The human homolog of PL could thus be an effective target for anxiety disorders.

Neural circuits engaged in ventral hippocampal modulation of dopamine function in medial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum

2008 ◽  
Vol 213 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 183-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pornnarin Taepavarapruk ◽  
John G. Howland ◽  
Soyon Ahn ◽  
Anthony G. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Ventral Striatum ◽  
Neural Circuits

Is Our Brain an Open or Closed System? Prediction Model of Brain and World–Brain Relation

2018 ◽  
pp. 55-76
Author(s):  
Georg Northoff
Keyword(s):  
Prediction Model ◽  
Closed System ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Predictive Coding ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
The World ◽  
World Brain ◽  
The Brain

Some recent philosophical discussions consider whether the brain is best understood as an open or closed system. This issue has major epistemic consequences akin to the scepticism engendered by the famous Cartesian demon. Specifically, one and the same empirical theory of brain function, predictive coding, entailing a prediction model of brain, have been associated with contradictory views of the brain as either open (Clark, 2012, 2013) or closed (Hohwy, 2013, 2014). Based on recent empirical evidence, the present paper argues that contrary to appearances, these views of the brain are compatible with one another. I suggest that there are two main forms of neural activity in the brain, one of which can be characterized as open, and the other as closed. Stimulus-induced activity, because it relies on predictive coding is indeed closed to the world, which entails that in certain respects, the brain is an inferentially secluded and self-evidencing system. In contrast, the brain’s resting state or spontaneous activity is best taken as open because it is a world-evidencing system that allows for the brain’s neural activity to align with the statistically-based spatiotemporal structure of objects and events in the world. This model requires an important caveat, however. Due to its statistically-based nature, the resting state’s alignment to the world comes in degrees. In extreme cases, the degree of alignment can be extremely low, resulting in a resting state that is barely if at all aligned to the world. This is for instance the case in schizophrenia. Clinical symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations in schizophrenics are indicative of the fundamental delicateness of the alignment between the brain’s resting-state and the world’s phenomena. Nevertheless, I argue that so long as we are dealing with a well-functioning brain, the more dire epistemic implications of predictive coding can be forestalled. That the brain is in part a self-evidencing system does not yield any generalizable reason to worry that human cognition is out of step with the real world. Instead, the brain is aligned to the world accounting for “world-brain relation” that mitigates sceptistic worries.

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