Bridging microscopic and macroscopic measures of reward-guided decision making. (360G-Wellcome-098830_Z_12_Z)

I propose a series of experiments targeted at understanding the role of prefrontal cortex in valueguided choice. All experiments will be conducted by recording single-unit activity from multiple regions of prefrontal cortex simultaneously in an animal model, and also bycollecting magnetoencephalography data in healthy human volunteers. This will facilitate comparison of neural responses across species, and across microscopic and macroscopic spatial scales. The key goal of this research is to bridge these spatial scales using a common mechanistic framework, by making use of biophysically realistic spiking network models to explain neural activity. In my first experiment I will use a paradigm that has been closely studied in the domain of perceptual decision-making - a working-memory guided discrimination paradigm - adapted for reward-guided decision making. This bears the advantage that several biophysical models are readily available, simplifying the process of comparing neural activity to a biophysically realistic model. In subsequent experiments I will develop more elaborate biophysical models to account for decisions made in different and competing decision spaces, and to explain neural response heterogeneity and inter-regional communication. This will support my broader goal of enabling future systems neuroscience experiments to be performed in more formal predictive frameworks.