Dynamic cortical networks for cognitive flexibility (360G-Wellcome-201409_Z_16_Z)

This project will test the neural basis of cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility allows us to change the rules governing our behaviour to fit the current context. Flexibility is important because we need it even for common tasks, such as changing our normal route home to stop by the supermarket. Prefrontal cortex (PFC) is necessary for cognitive flexibility: damage leads to severe impairments. However, the functional mechanism is largely unknown. I propose that flexible rule switches are implemented through dynamic changes in functional connectivity within the PFC and across the brain. Connectivity sub-selects a local PFC ensemble and links it to appropriate input and output regions, ensuring that new input triggers a state-dependent cascade of neural activation that underpins context-appropriate action selection. I will test whether oscillatory synchronization within PFC and across context-relevant areas is central to this dynamic coding of flexible rule switches by combining multivariate analysis and computational modeling with recordings from animals and humans (intracranial recordings and MEG). Both dynamic coding and synchronization are fundamental building blocks of neural coding. Therefore, synthesizing these ideas in a coherent framework would be of wide interest in systems neuroscience and psychology.