Adaptive circuit dynamics across human cortex during evidence accumulation in changing environments
- Journal:
- Nature Neuroscience
- Published:
- DOI:
- 10.1038/s41593-021-00839-z
- Affiliations:
- 8
- Authors:
- 5
Research Highlight
Adaptive brain circuitry underpins decision making
© SEBASTIAN KAULITZKI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images
Decision making in response to ever-changing and unpredictable visual cues requires the brain to take an adaptive approach to information processing.
A neuroimaging study conducted on people performing a perceptual choice tasks has highlighted the adaptive nature of evidence accumulation in the brain.
A team led by University of Hamburg researchers has identified signatures of this adaptive processing in the decision-related dynamics of the parietal and frontal regions of the brain — which are known to be involved in action planning — with feedback signalling to the visual centres of the sensory cortex.
These circuit mechanisms help explain an essential cognitive function that is often disrupted in mental health disorders marked by pervasive bad decision making. A better understanding of how the brain integrates sensory information in an adaptive fashion could thus help to reduce the burden of psychiatric disease.
References
- Nature Neuroscience 24, 987–997 (2021). doi: 10.1038/s41593-021-00839-z