Special Session
Michael J. Frank (Brown University)
[Website]
From Descriptive to Normative Accounts of Frontostriatal Control
The basal ganglia and dopaminergic (DA) systems are well studied for their roles in reinforcement learning, but the underlying architecture is notoriously complex. First, I will present a computational account of how this complexity is optimized to provide robust advantages over traditional reinforcement learning models over a range of environments, and suggest that empirical observations of altered learning and decision making in patient populations reflect a byproduct of an otherwise normative mechanism. Second, I will show how this system, when interacting with prefrontal cortex, can learn to influence cognitive actions such as working memory updating and “chunking” strategies that are adapted as function of task demands, mimicking human performance and normative models.
References :
1. Jaskir, A. & Frank, M.J. (2023). On the normative advantages of dopamine and striatal opponency for learning and choice. eLife, 12, e85107.
2. Soni, A. & Frank, M.J. (2024). Adaptive chunking improves effective working memory capacity in a prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia circuit. eLife, 13, RP97894.
3. Pagnier, G., Asaad, W.F. & Frank, M.J. (2024). Double dissociation of dopamine and subthalamic nucleus stimulation on effortful cost/benefit decision making. Current Biology, 34, 665-660.
Naotsugu Tsuchiya (School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing, and Health Sciences, Monash University)
[Website]
The Qualia Structure Paradigm: towards a construction of a Qualia Periodic Table for the dissolution of the Hard Problem of Consciousness
The nature of the relationships between qualitative aspects of consciousness, or qualia, and their physical substrates remains unclear. The problem of qualia is one of the biggest challenges among the enigmas of consciousness. One difficulty in qualia research is characterization of qualia. Verbal descriptions and simple behavioral responses are unable to capture the richness of qualia, the dilemma faced by the traditional NCC paradigm. Comparing a quale with another quale, however, is not difficult. Such relational characterization of qualia, but now in a structural context, underlies the core of the Qualia Structure paradigm. This new paradigm was inspired by category theory, in particular, the Yoneda lemma, which states that an object in a category is characterized by its relationships to all objects in that category. Inspired by the lemma, the Qualia Structure paradigm proposes a pathway to characterize and organize the structural properties of different qualia one by one. As a result, it aspires to reach an organizing principle, akin to a Mendeleevian periodic table, for the domains of qualia and their physical substrates. Under this framework, any valid theories of consciousness should link the two domains in a structure-preserving manner. Successful refinement of such theories will lead to “natural” relationships among these different theories. This level of specification and understanding of relations between qualia and the physical would dissolve the Hard Problem of consciousness in its current form.
References :
https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/492hu
Topic Session
佐々木拓哉（東北大学大学院薬学研究科）
Takuya Sasaki (Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tohoku University)
[Website]
身体内部シグナルから考察する情動と脳情報処理
Emotion and information processing supported by interoceptive signals
Interoception is the process by which the brain network continuously receives internal sensations from peripheral organs. The vagus nerve is a core pathway to transmit interoceptive signals, which crucially affects emotions, decision making, and psychiatric disorders. However, the detailed neurophysiological dynamics of the vagus nerve in response to emotions and social behavior and its associated pathological changes remain unclear. We demonstrated that the activity of the cervical vagus nerve is reduced in stressed mice and correlated with the power of prefrontal cortical oscillations. The oscillations also underwent dynamic changes depending on the behavioral state. Chronic vagus nerve stimulation restored behavior-relevant neuronal oscillations with the recovery of altered behavioral states in stressed mice. These results suggest that physiological vagal-brain communication underlies emotional behaviors. Furthermore, we recently found that vagus nerve activity triggers neuronal activity in the hippocampus in addition to the prefrontal cortex. In this workshop, I discuss how internal reactivation of memories supported by prefrontal-hippocampal networks is related to vagus nerve-induced interoception.
References :
1. Kuga et al. Hippocampal sharp wave ripples underlie stress susceptibility in male mice. Nature Communications 14: 2105 (2023)
2. Okonogi et al. Stress-induced vagal activity influences anxiety-relevant prefrontal and amygdala neuronal oscillations in male mice. Nature Communications 15: 183 (2024)
3. How the brain senses the body. Nature, Nature index: Neuroscience 2024