Mechanisms of goal commitment and pursuit
<p>In natural environments, most rewards follow a period of pursuit. This requires the ability to plan over multiple steps, as well as the need for commitment to chosen goals. This thesis examines these two components of goal-directed behaviour: planning and commitment.</p> <p>In...
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| Muut tekijät: | |
| Aineistotyyppi: | Opinnäyte |
| Kieli: | English |
| Julkaistu: |
2024
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| Aiheet: |
| _version_ | 1826314655307399168 |
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| author | Holton, E |
| author2 | Kolling, N |
| author_facet | Kolling, N Holton, E |
| author_sort | Holton, E |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>In natural environments, most rewards follow a period of pursuit. This requires the ability to plan over multiple steps, as well as the need for commitment to chosen goals. This thesis examines these two components of goal-directed behaviour: planning and commitment.</p>
<p>In the first half of the thesis, I investigate the psychological and neural mechanisms supporting commitment to selected goals. This is addressed using a combination of behavioural modelling, functional magnetic imaging (fMRI), and a study with lesion patients. I propose that commitment is supported by attentional mechanisms which prioritize completion of the chosen goal at the expense of better alternatives. Among healthy people, differences in goal commitment and goal- directed attention are predicted by sustained activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Damage to the same neural region reduces commitment to goals, which leads to a performance advantage in settings where people tend to over-persist. Nevertheless, it is discussed how seemingly irrational levels of commitment to goals will be beneficial in many environments.</p>
<p>In the latter half of the thesis, I turn to questions of how planning toward goals is affected by medial prefrontal damage, in a population of lesion patients. Two pre-existing paradigms in computational neuroscience are used to dissociate how damage affects the different cognitive components contributing to planning. I find that lesions to medial prefrontal areas impair planning in the more complex setting (the ‘four-in-a-row’ task), but not in a simpler setting (the ‘two-step’ task). Further investigation of the underlying cognitive components suggests that damage affects the capacity to select all the relevant information for planning in complex environments.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:36:30Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:e72ea965-adc6-4acc-b9c6-e1f7b3d5405c |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:36:30Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:e72ea965-adc6-4acc-b9c6-e1f7b3d5405c2024-09-24T08:25:42ZMechanisms of goal commitment and pursuitThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:e72ea965-adc6-4acc-b9c6-e1f7b3d5405cCognitive neuroscienceComputational neurosciencePsychologyEnglishHyrax Deposit2024Holton, EKolling, NO'Reilly, JSummerfield, C<p>In natural environments, most rewards follow a period of pursuit. This requires the ability to plan over multiple steps, as well as the need for commitment to chosen goals. This thesis examines these two components of goal-directed behaviour: planning and commitment.</p> <p>In the first half of the thesis, I investigate the psychological and neural mechanisms supporting commitment to selected goals. This is addressed using a combination of behavioural modelling, functional magnetic imaging (fMRI), and a study with lesion patients. I propose that commitment is supported by attentional mechanisms which prioritize completion of the chosen goal at the expense of better alternatives. Among healthy people, differences in goal commitment and goal- directed attention are predicted by sustained activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Damage to the same neural region reduces commitment to goals, which leads to a performance advantage in settings where people tend to over-persist. Nevertheless, it is discussed how seemingly irrational levels of commitment to goals will be beneficial in many environments.</p> <p>In the latter half of the thesis, I turn to questions of how planning toward goals is affected by medial prefrontal damage, in a population of lesion patients. Two pre-existing paradigms in computational neuroscience are used to dissociate how damage affects the different cognitive components contributing to planning. I find that lesions to medial prefrontal areas impair planning in the more complex setting (the ‘four-in-a-row’ task), but not in a simpler setting (the ‘two-step’ task). Further investigation of the underlying cognitive components suggests that damage affects the capacity to select all the relevant information for planning in complex environments.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Cognitive neuroscience Computational neuroscience Psychology Holton, E Mechanisms of goal commitment and pursuit |
| title | Mechanisms of goal commitment and pursuit |
| title_full | Mechanisms of goal commitment and pursuit |
| title_fullStr | Mechanisms of goal commitment and pursuit |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mechanisms of goal commitment and pursuit |
| title_short | Mechanisms of goal commitment and pursuit |
| title_sort | mechanisms of goal commitment and pursuit |
| topic | Cognitive neuroscience Computational neuroscience Psychology |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT holtone mechanismsofgoalcommitmentandpursuit |