Joo-Hyun Song, Ph.D - US grants

PROJECT SUMMARY (See instructions): Most real world visual scenes are complex and crowded. Instead of a single isolated object, multiple objects compete for attention and directed action. Thus, any purposeful action requires the selection of a single goal from multiple possibilities. In daily life, the ability to orient attention, select an appropriate target, and direct various types of visually-guided actions towards the selected target is normally taken for granted. Its importance only becomes apparent once the system fails. This project aims to determine how multiple systems are integrated to select a target from among many possibilities within complex visual scenes and select an appropriate action in response. The proposed research will examine whether brain motor areas that independently generate saccadic eye movements and reaching movements also participate in target selection for the respective motor responses (effector-specific target selection). The project will also assess whether saccade-related brain regions are involved in more abstract, general-purpose target selection for other actions besides saccades, such as reaching (effector-general target selection). Finally, the proposed research will investigate whether mechanisms for effector-general target selection encode the history of target selection for both saccades and reaching movements across trials.

The Directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences offers postdoctoral research fellowships to provide opportunities for recent doctoral graduates to obtain additional training, to gain research experience under the sponsorship of established scientists, and to broaden their scientific horizons beyond their undergraduate and graduate training. Postdoctoral fellowships are further designed to assist new scientists to direct their research efforts across traditional disciplinary lines and to avail themselves of unique research resources, sites, and facilities, including at foreign locations. This postdoctoral fellowship supports a rising scientist in the interdisciplinary area overlapping behavioral science, computational modeling and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), focusing on the process of decision making. Decision-making is a pervasive part of everyday life: in some cases, decisions are irreversible and in others an initial choice can be altered by a change of mind. For instance, when fetching a book off the shelf, one may initially reach toward the wrong title and later adjust the course of their reach in favor of the desired option. Such decisions require precise coordination between several brain systems to allocate attention, select a course of action, and execute hand and eye movements. Importantly, recent research demonstrates that cognition is tightly integrated with perception and action. Specifically, motor areas supporting the execution of eye and hand movements are also critically involved in decision-making; however, while the neural networks of decision-making are relatively well characterized, little is known about how the brain supports online changes to behavior after a decision to act has been executed. This proposal aims to investigate the brain systems supporting the ability to continuously modify decisions during target selection and determine how competition for attentional resources impacts this process. The results of this project will advance our understanding of the brain structures and neural information flow underlying rapid, flexible decision-making during action execution. This has important implications for informing impairments caused by disorders such as traumatic brain injury, stroke, and optic ataxia and the design of more advanced neural prosthetics to better serve amputees in dynamic, real-life settings.

The goal of this research is to provide a more comprehensive understanding of human decision-making by examining how multiple brain systems interact to support changes of mind during target selection. Using a multi-faceted approach including behavioral, electroencephalography (EEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and advanced computational modeling techniques, this proposal will investigate the neural substrates that support rapid decision adjustments when executing actions. Specifically, how does the allocation of spatial attention during target selection impact change of mind? Moreover, what is the nature of information flow between higher-order cortical regions and eye- and hand-related motor areas during changes of mind during target selection? These results will represent an important step toward a more complete understanding of the brain mechanisms involved in complex human decision-making in naturalistic settings. This proposal is also supported by the NSF EPSCoR.

A pilot operating an aircraft and a stroke victim recovering the ability to walk must learn (or learn again) pertinent motor skills. Importantly, these motor skills are often used in new situations, where attention may be distracted by other events or objects. For example, during an emergency the pilot must continue to operate the aircraft while maintaining communications with ground authorities and other crew members and assessing the state of the aircraft. Similarly, a stroke patient recovering the ability to walk must attend to cars, other pedestrians, and obstacles in the path in order to avoid collisions. Attentional demands may also differ when a motor skill is first learned and when it is performed at a later time. What if skills learned when there is no distraction deteriorate when distractions are present at recall, or vice versa? How might motor learning programs be developed that can train successful transfer of motor skills to novel situations? With the support of an NSF CAREER award, Dr. Joo-Hyun Song at Brown University will characterize mechanisms involved in coping with attentional distractions during motor learning and will develop a training program to promote robust long-term learning despite a wide range of distractions.

Dr. Song will mentor nationally and locally selected undergraduates in a 10-week summer research program, with participants recruited through two initiatives designed to prepare qualified undergraduates from diverse minority backgrounds for M.D. and Ph.D. programs (the Blueprint Program for Enhancing Neuroscience Diversity through Undergraduate Research Education Experiences and the Leadership Alliance Summer Research-Early Identification Program). Dr. Song will also provide a longer-term nationwide mentoring program for under-represented students identified from minority-serving institutions (from the end of their freshman year to graduation). In addition, Dr. Song will collaborate with the Sci-Toons initiative, a science education program at Brown University's Science Center, to create and broadcast two multimedia science episodes based on results of her research and aimed at K-12 students and the general public.

This research project aims to characterize visuomotor skills within a wider theoretical framework where the motor skill is modulated by attention and memory. Dr. Song will investigate 1) which components of attentional distractors are encoded into motor memory; 2) when the integration between distraction and motor memory occurs; and 3) how to develop a long-term, robust motor learning program in which motor memory can be trained to be adaptable under a variety of situations. The work should provide a basis for a unified theoretical framework of attention, motor learning, and memory mechanisms across disciplines including cognitive science, neuroscience, and biomedical engineering.

This project will investigate the role of distinct mechanisms for inhibition on children's developing social cognition, specifically focused on their understanding of others' mental states, their trust in others' knowledge, and their understanding of fairness. In addition to enhancing knowledge about how specific mechanisms of inhibition develop, the project will address long-standing debates in social cognition regarding the role of inhibition in development. Isolating the role of different inhibitory processes in children's social judgment specifies the mechanisms through which children develop social cognitive knowledge, and cognitive development more generally. Understanding how these processes unfold also applies to real-world practice. By examining how children understand others' mental states, the researchers will be able to provide a framework for describing how children resolve conflicts with others. By examining how children develop concepts of fairness, the researchers will be able to identify factors contributing to cooperation and moral development. These findings have the potential to impact curriculum design and interventions designed to promote social cognitive development.

This project uses a technique called reach trajectory tracking (RTT), which measures how children engage in reaching behaviors in response to scenes shown to them on a screen. Different mechanisms of inhibitory control are reflected by the speed and trajectory of children's reaching responses. Three lines of research in social cognition will be addressed: children's theory of mind, selective social learning, and prosocial behavior. Each line of research targets the developmental trajectory of a social-cognitive process and discerns the role of distinct inhibitory processes in that development. In this way, the research team can articulate ways in which children's social cognition develops and what role inhibition plays in this development.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

The goal of Women in Cognitive Science is to improve the visibility of women in the field and to create an environment that invites discussion of the issues that all scientists, but women in particular, may be required to negotiate in the trajectory of creating and sustaining a successful career. A combination of online events, networking opportunities, and virtual or in-person workshops are designed for women in cognitive science, especially women in the early stages of their academic career. The workshops focus on building networks for success, promoting visibility of women scientists and their stories, and exploring pathways to academic and non-academic careers in cognitive science. A robust suite of online events will take place throughout the year and provide ongoing opportunities for women in cognitive science to build opportunities for research collaboration, seek mentoring across career stages, and engage in discussion of strategies for improving visibility and career advancement.

Virtual and in-person workshops will take place at meetings of the Psychonomic Society, the Cognitive Science Society, the Association for Psychological Sciences, and the American Psychological Association. The workshops will take the form of public forums with invited speaker-panelists to initiate discussion about best practices for the professional advancement of women in cognitive science at the individual and institutional level. These workshops will include online engagement to increase exposure, and will also feature "speed-mentoring" for personalized assistance to early career researchers. By partnering with established societies, the WiCS group will maximize the opportunity for systemic change that addresses the career challenges of a group that continues to be underrepresented in senior academic and industry positions in the cognitive sciences.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.