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CRCNS: Circuit mechanisms of priors and learning during decision making

Award Number: R01MH132172
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/05/2022
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 07/31/2025

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CRCNS: Circuit mechanisms of priors and learning during decision making - When learning a new task, both rats and humans exhibit suboptimal behaviors plagued with superstitious ticks and idiosyncratic biases. One prominent example of such suboptimality are sequential effects: animals tend to bias their choices based on previous decisions and outcomes, hindering performance in common laboratory tasks using independent trials. Recurrent neural networks (RNN) have become a common tool to study potential neural mechanisms of cognition. Yet, RNNs typically behave much closer to optimality in laboratory tasks than real subjects. We suggest this behavioral difference is rooted in the fundamental discrepancy between how animals and current RNNs learn: unlike animals before learning, RNNs before training are tabula rasa and their connectivity is adjusted exclusively to the local contingencies of the task. We hypothesize that animals’ learning of simple laboratory tasks builds mostly on pre-existing programs, namely structural prior, that have been shaped by evolution for the species’ fitness in a given ecological niche. Sequential effects are a manifestation of such pre-wired strategies, which may ultimately support learning. To test this, we will characterize sequential effects during learning of a set of perceptual tasks and identify their underlying neural circuitry. We will compare animals’ behavior with RNNs which, after being equipped with structural priors, can mimic the animal’s ability to learn new tasks. Objectives Objective 1. Compare sequential effects in humans and rats with those developed by RNNs. Objective 2. Characterize the role of the corticostriatal circuit mPFC --> DMS in the tasks and the site of plasticity necessary for task learning. Objective 3. Characterize the neural mechanisms underlying the representation of relevant variables in the brain of the rat and in RNNs.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = -$2,118 )
2026	2024	MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY	77 MASSACHUSETTS AVE	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02139	MIDDLESEX	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	3	12/11/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$2,118
														Subtotal = -$2,118

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $371,765 )
2024	2024	MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY	77 MASSACHUSETTS AVE	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02139	MIDDLESEX	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	001	3	8/28/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$371,765
2024	2023	MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY	77 MASSACHUSETTS AVE	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02139	MIDDLESEX	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	2	5/24/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $371,765

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $379,876 )
2023	2023	MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY	77 MASSACHUSETTS AVE	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02139	MIDDLESEX	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	002	2	8/1/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$379,876
2023	2022	MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY	77 MASSACHUSETTS AVE	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02139	MIDDLESEX	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	001	1	4/25/2023	NEW	$0
2023	2022	MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY	77 MASSACHUSETTS AVE	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02139	MIDDLESEX	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	1	11/29/2022	NEW	$0
														Subtotal = $379,876

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $387,750 )
2022	2022	MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY	77 MASSACHUSETTS AVE	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02139	MIDDLESEX	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	1	9/5/2022	NEW	$387,750
														Subtotal = $387,750

Grand Total All Awards = $1,137,273

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CRCNS: Circuit mechanisms of priors and learning during decision making

Award Number: R01MH132172

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/05/2022

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 07/31/2025

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