Thinking the Right Thoughts

About this Seminar

In realistic choice tasks, especially sequential ones like mazes, actions are separated from their consequences by many steps of space and time. A central computational problem in decision making — which arises in various guises such as credit assignment and planning — is spanning these gaps to work out the long-term consequences of candidate actions. Dr. Daw review recent experimental and theoretical work aimed at understanding the mechanisms by which the brain solves this problem. First, he will review a new study that monitors neural signatures of reward expectancy in rodents to monitor how the brain propagates information about individual experiences with outcomes to distal choicepoints. Second, Dr. Daw will report ongoing theoretical work that aims to clarify how the brain can judiciously build and maintain cognitive maps so as to achieve effective decisions while minimizing computational costs. This offers a formal, resource-rational perspective on a range of issues such as habits and slips of action in the healthy brain, but also may explain dysfunctions such as compulsion, rumination, and avoidance.

Additional Details

This is a free event hosted by the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and co-sponsored by the institute's Center for Human Neuroscience Research. The Pioneers in Biomedical Research Seminar Series, which runs annually from September to May, has featured leading biomedical researchers from throughout the country since the program began in 2012. The lectures are also open to all members of the Virginia Tech community including graduate students, undergraduates, faculty, and staff, as well as the public.

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