Jeremy R. Gray - US grants

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A deeper, mechanistic understanding of emotion-cognition interactions is likely to lead to major progress in the study and treatment of mental health. A first major goal of the proposed research is to investigate how approach-withdrawal states influence the neural substrates of high-level cognition, especially lateral pre-frontal cortex. A second major goal is to investigate individual differences in emotional reactivity and cognitive control function, because these are likely to influence emotion-cognition interactions. In previous work (PNAS; JEP: General) we have developed and validated a methodologically rigorous emotion-cognition challenge paradigm able to reveal a selective influence of induced emotional states (from short videos) on neural activity in dorsolateral PFC during a demanding task (verbal and nonverbal n-back tasks), which we will use to advantage in the current study. However, because high-order interactions can be hard to detect and individual differences may matter greatly, we strongly suspect that a typical neuroimaging study with a dozen or even 20 participants would be severely underpowered for our purposes. We propose to conduct an fMRI study with 100 healthy participants in that we collect diverse measures in a number of domains, including emotional states, cognitive function, personality, and whole-brain activity. We will measure both state-related and event-related neural activity, and conduct numerous in-depth analyses of these data using sophisticated analytic tools, including covariance-based methods. The exceptional statistical power (for an fMRI study) is absolutely crucial for the detection of what are likely to be subtle but important effects that could not otherwise be studied (such as personality or emotional state differences in effective connectivity, or Emotion x Cognition x Personality x Hemisphere interactions in brain activity). We will test several major hypotheses in a single dataset including tests of: three mechanisms by which affective states could modulate the neural bases of higher cognitive processes; prefrontal hemispheric differences in emotion; and biological models of personality and fluid intelligence. The results are likely to be of major theoretical and translational importance for the study and treatment of mental health and drug addiction.

A central premise of the proposed project is that a unique connection exists between analogical reasoning and scientific learning and innovation. The investigators explore the question of how it is that a particular type of analogy, cross-domain analogy, especially supports learning and creativity. First, they will attempt to identify the cognitive and neural components that make cross-domain analogy a powerful form of reasoning. Their analyses will include an examination of individual differences that covary with behavioral and neural markers of cross-domain analogical thinking. Second, they will examine how cross-domain analogies can be used as tools to enhance learning and retention. They will also test cross-domain analogy as a teaching tool by examining whether cross-domain analogies help students form and retain correct understanding of commonly misunderstood science concepts. Third, they will test the extent to which cross-domain analogy can be used to enhance creative thinking in an engineering education context.

.Self-control and intelligence can greatly influence people's mental and physical well-being, including their educational and health outcomes. The proposed experiments are intended to make fundamental advances in understanding the nature of self-control and intelligence, especially: a) how they are related to each other; b) the information processing and neural mechanisms that support them; and c) how they influence and are influenced by emotion or affect. Sometimes excess emotion needs to be regulated to behave more optimally (e.g., to resist temptation and impulsive responding), and sometimes the opposite is true: affect can help people behave more optimally (e.g., being mildly anxious about a test can lead to better preparation). The PI's prior work has sought to establish that cognitive and affective aspects of the human mind and brain are integrated in a deep sense, that is, cognition and emotion are not completely separable. In turn, such integration strongly suggests that affect cannot be fully separated from intelligent behavior, including self-control and even logical reasoning. The PI will conduct behavioral, brain imaging, and molecular genetic studies of self-control, as well as a classroom-based intervention to teach Emotional Literacy skills and evaluate the influence of that intervention on self-control and intelligence as outcome measures. If successful, the proposed research will provide a strong basis for follow-up studies into the roles of frustration tolerance, math anxiety, and stereotype threat during STEM learning.

Broader impacts. The research described in this proposal will be the core activity of a training program, based in the PI's laboratory at Yale University, intended to increase research capacity in the cognitive neuroscience of science education. The results will add momentum to a major conceptual shift at the core of conceptions of human intelligence, especially the role of affect and self-control. By extension, it has the potential to positively influence educational curriculum and policy. The activity will engage diverse undergraduate and graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows in developing their skills in cognitive neuroscience research, classroom research, and science communication. The PI will visit schools in Kent, U.K., to gain a greater cultural perspective and to contribute to international scientific dialog on affect, self-control, and intelligence.