Neurobehavioral mechanisms of goal-directed instrumental control

• Applicant: Dr. Nuria Doñamayor Alonso
• Subject Area: Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 421174179

Instrumental behavior is thought to be controlled by both goal-directed and habitual processes. In contrast to the latter, goal-directed control is defined by its sensitivity to changes in the current value of the outcome, and in the causal nature of the instrumental response-outcome relationship. Although numerous studies have examined sensitivity to changes in outcome value, neuroscientific research on the second aspect of goal-directed control has been scarce. Therefore, the studies described in the current proposal aim to thoroughly characterize the neural network enabling flexible adaptation to changes in both the current value of the outcome and the causal nature of the response-outcome relationship in a large sample of healthy volunteers. This will be done multimodally, by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation. The disruption of processing in target prefrontal and parietal regions with transcranial magnetic stimulation will help elucidate their specific roles in the different aspects of goal-directed vs habitual control beyond what is possible by merely observational methods. This project will further use computational modeling to assess the formalization of habitual and goal-directed processes as model-free and model-based control, respectively. Computational and classical measures will be related, evaluating their construct validity and addressing the ongoing debate of the correspondence between the different operationalizations of instrumental behavior. Impulsive and compulsive behaviors are thought to be related to an altered balance between goal-directed and habitual control, and impulsivity-compulsivity is considered one of the candidate dimensional models in psychopathology. By studying healthy participants with extreme trait profiles, this project will aid to discern the distinct and joint effects of impulsivity and compulsivity on instrumental behavior. Therefore, the results of this project will not only comprehensively characterize multiple aspects of instrumental behavior in healthy participants, but also inform clinical models central to the understanding of neuropsychiatric disorders.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants