How do we decide what to do? Resting-state connectivity patterns and components of self-generated thought linked to the development of more concrete personal goals

Human cognition is not limited to the available environmental input but can consider realities that are different to the here and now. We describe the cognitive states and neural processes linked to the refinement of descriptions of personal goals. When personal goals became concrete, participants reported greater thoughts about the self and the future during mind-wandering. This pattern was not observed for descriptions of TV programmes. Connectivity analysis of participants who underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan revealed neural traits associated with this pattern. Strong hippocampal connectivity with ventromedial pre-frontal cortex was common to better-specified descriptions of goals and TV programmes, while connectivity between hippocampus and the pre-supplementary motor area was associated with individuals whose goals were initially abstract but became more concrete over the course of the experiment. We conclude that self-generated cognition that arises during the mind-wandering state can allow goals to be refined, and this depends on neural systems anchored in the hippocampus

The Role Of The Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex In Value-Based Decision-Making

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) has been shown to correlate with the subjective value for options, across reward type and across hundreds of functional neuroimaging studies. Despite the prominence of its role in preference-based decision-making, its specific contributions to how decisions are made have not yet been well-characterised. Study 1 addresses what the vmPFC signal represents during decision-making. While the vmPFC signal has been shown to correlate highly with subjective value in past studies, this signal is also consistent with mental navigation through a conceptual attribute space using a grid-like code. We found that the mental navigation model lacked support in the evidence, and the subjective value model remains the best explanation for vmPFC signal during decision-making. After having established that the signal in vmPFC reflects subjective value, Study 2 addresses whether subjective value representations remain consistent for non-choice preference tasks, and when this representation comes online during the decision process. This study shows that the value network seen previously for choice tasks also is active during a matching bidding task, and that the vmPFC, interestingly, represents value only at the time of the final choice. Finally, in Study 3, I address the question of how the vmPFC is necessary for subjective value in my third chapter. Transitivity (the idea that if A \u3e B, and B \u3e C, then A \u3e C) is a key property of a value-based system. Individuals with ventromedial frontal lobe damage have been found to make more transitivity errors in the past, but it is not known whether vmPFC damage causes fundamentally intransitive choices (implying abolishment of value), or transitive but noisier choices (implying preservation of value but increased instability). We found strong evidence for the second case, demonstrating that vmPFC damage adds instability to valuation but does not abolish it. The evidence I present here is consistent with the theory that vmPFC is involved in a subjective value-based process during decision-making, yet that value is a distributed process over many brain regions where other regions may compensate for the loss of the vmPFC in calculating value

How do we decide what to do? : Resting-state connectivity patterns and components of self-generated thought linked to the development of more concrete personal goals

Human cognition is not limited to the available environmental input but can consider realities that are different to the here and now. We describe the cognitive states and neural processes linked to the refinement of descriptions of personal goals. When personal goals became concrete, participants reported greater thoughts about the self and the future during mind-wandering. This pattern was not observed for descriptions of TV programmes. Connectivity analysis of participants who underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan revealed neural traits associated with this pattern. Strong hippocampal connectivity with ventromedial pre-frontal cortex was common to better-specified descriptions of goals and TV programmes, while connectivity between hippocampus and the pre-supplementary motor area was associated with individuals whose goals were initially abstract but became more concrete over the course of the experiment. We conclude that self-generated cognition that arises during the mind-wandering state can allow goals to be refined, and this depends on neural systems anchored in the hippocampus

Boundary extension is attenuated in patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and hippocampus have been implicated in the mental construction of scenes and events. However, little is known about their specific contributions to these cognitive functions. Boundary extension (BE) is a robust indicator of fast, automatic, and implicit scene construction. BE occurs when individuals who are viewing scenes automatically imagine what might be beyond the view, and consequently later misremember having seen a greater expanse of the scene. Patients with hippocampal damage show attenuated BE because of their scene construction impairment. In the current study, we administered BE tasks to patients with vmPFC damage, brain-damaged control patients, and healthy control participants. We also contrasted the performance of these patients to the previously-published data from patients with hippocampal lesions (Mullally, Intraub, & Maguire, 2012). We found that vmPFC-damaged patients showed reduced BE compared to brain-damaged and healthy controls. Indeed, BE attenuation was similar following vmPFC or hippocampal damage. Notably, however, whereas hippocampal damage seems to particularly impair the spatial coherence of scenes, vmPFC damage leads to a difficulty constructing scenes in a broader sense, with the prediction of what should be in a scene, and the monitoring or integration of the scene elements being particularly compromised. We conclude that vmPFC and hippocampus play important and complementary roles in scene construction

Building Mental Experiences: From Scenes to Events

Mental events are central to everyday cognition, be it our continuous perception of the world, recalling autobiographical memories, or imagining the future. Little is known about the fine-grained temporal dynamics of these processes. Given the apparent predominance of scene imagery across cognition, in this thesis I used magnetoencephalography to investigate whether and how activity in the hippocampus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) supports the mental construction of scenes and the events to which they give rise. In the first experiment, participants gradually imagined scenes and also closely matched non-scene arrays; this allowed me to assess whether any brain regions showed preferential responses to scene imagery. The anterior hippocampus and vmPFC were particularly engaged by the construction of scene imagery, with the vmPFC driving hippocampal activity. In the second experiment, I found that certain objects – those that were space-defining – preferentially engaged the vmPFC and superior temporal gyrus during scene construction, providing insight into how objects affect the creation of scene representations. The third experiment involved boundary extension during scene perception, permitting me to examine how single scenes might be prepared for inclusion into events. I observed changes in evoked responses just 12.5-58 ms after scene onset over fronto-temporal sensors, with again the vmPFC exerting a driving influence on other brain regions, including the hippocampus. In the final experiment, participants watched brief movies of events built from a series of scenes or non-scene patterns. A difference in evoked responses between the two event types emerged during the first frame of the movies, the primary source of which was shown to be the hippocampus. The enduring theme of the results across experiments was scene-specific engagement of the hippocampus and vmPFC, with the latter being the driving influence. Overall, this thesis provides insights into the neural dynamics of how scenes are built, made ready for inclusion into unfolding mental episodes, and then linked to produce our seamless experience of the world

Flights and Perchings of the BrainMind: A Temporospatial Approach to Psychotherapy

This article introduces a process-oriented approach for improving present moment conceptualization in psychotherapy that is in alignment with neuroscience: the Temporospatial movements of mind (TSMM) model. We elaborate on seven temporal movements that describe the moment-to-moment morphogenesis of emotional feelings and thoughts from inception to maturity. Temporal refers to the passage of time through which feelings and thoughts develop, and electromagnetic activity, that among other responsibilities, bind information across time. Spatial dynamics extend from an undifferentiated to three dimensional experiences of emotional and cognitive processes. Neurophysiologically, spatial refers to structures within the brain and their varying interactions with one another. This article culminates in the development of an atheoretical temporospatial grid that may help clinicians conceptualize where patients are in their cognitive and emotional development to further guide technique

Executive functioning and the interpretation of social information following traumatic brain injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is commonly associated with problems in social functioning. There have been very few studies conducted to elucidate the specific contribution of cognitive deficits to these problems. Previous studies have suggested that executive impairment might be related to poor social decision-making. This study aimed to examine whether TBI was related to problems with the interpretation of social information and to what extent any problems were associated with executive impairment. The performance of seventeen TBI non-aphasic participants was compared to seventeen healthy control group participants matched in age, sex and NART IQ on neuropsychological tests of executive function, theory-of-mind-type social comprehension tasks and three real- life-type social tasks involving the interpretation of social information. The social interpretation tasks consisted of a pragmatic judgment task, a social skill judgment task and a conversation judgment task. The first two tasks presented a series of short written social interactions between pairs of characters. It was necessary to rate alternative verbal responses made by one character, which varied in their degree of context appropriateness and skill. The third task involved judging the manner and para-linguistic features of characters in an audible conversation. The TBI group performed more poorly on the pragmatic judgment and social skill judgment tasks. They demonstrated poor inferential sensitivity by failing to differentiate adequately between alternative responses. They were also significantly impaired on the measures of attention, executive function and theory-of-mind-type social comprehension, compared to the Control group. It was argued that difficulty appreciating the appropriateness and skilfulness of responses reflected poor inhibitory control resulting from deficits in executive functioning. Despite a lack of correlational evidence to support an executive explanation, this was considered more plausible to an account in terms of selective theory of mind impairment. TBI group performance on the conversation judgment task was generally similar to the Control group. They judged the manner of the characters as accurately as the Control group. However, they appeared less sensitive to the presence of para-linguistic features. It was speculated that this might have been due to poor attention or difficulties retaining and retrieving information. Overall, the findings suggest that there is a need for further research examining the interpretation of social information in TBI patients. The implications for rehabilitation were discussed

Mapping Consumer Cognition and Emotions: A Neuroscientific Approach

Although the rival theories for consumer decision making process, cognitive perspective and experiential perspective, have successfully contributed to the marketing discipline, there is an alternative point of view that cognition and emotions work together for a decision or even a behavior. However, the methodological limitation has been a big hurdle that interrupts insightfulness and fruitfulness of marketing research, especially in consumer research. This study thus aims to develop a brain map and functional connectivity of consumer decision making and emotions to show physiological and neurological evidence that emotional behaviors and cognitive behaviors are associated when consumers decide a behavior by analyzing functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI) data. Activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis and network analysis (correlation-based machine learning algorithm) are employed and performed. Findings of two individual studies show the neurological evidence that neural regions for emotional (fear, sadness, happiness, disgust, surprise, and anger as a proxy of emotional behaviors) and consumer decision making are interactive. The research successfully performed a consumer brain connectivity for consumer decision making and emotions based on the network theory. With the findings, this research would have contributions to the marketing discipline by piling up neurological, physiological, and behavioral knowledge to better understand consumer behaviors