Information-seeking in health and disease (360G-Wellcome-214268_Z_18_Z)

People spend a substantial amount of time seeking out information (e.g., reading, asking questions, internet browsing). It is theorized that common psychiatric conditions, including depression and anxiety, are characterized by abnormal information-seeking patterns. These patterns could potentially be measured and used to facilitate diagnosis and treatment selection. However, the precise links between information-seeking and psychopathology are unknown. In fact, we know little about how to quantify information-seeking or the mechanisms that control it. My aim is to understand (i) how people decide to seek or avoid information and (ii) how those decisions relate to mental health. I have developed tasks to quantify key drivers of information-seeking (including valence of information, uncertainty, instrumental utility). I will test participants to assess whether psychopathology symptoms are linked to abnormal influence of these drivers on information-seeking. I will also combine pharmacological manipulation with neuroimaging to examine whether the influence of these drivers is dependent on dopamine – a neuromodulator that malfunctions in several conditions in which information-seeking is theorized to be altered- and identify the neural computations involved. I will assess whether these drivers are over/under expressed in individuals diagnosed with affective disorders, and conduct experiments to determine how these alterations impact well-being.