2010 |
Tricomi, Elizabeth |
R15Activity Code Description: Supports small-scale research projects at educational institutions that provide baccalaureate or advanced degrees for a significant number of the Nation’s research scientists but that have not been major recipients of NIH support. The goals of the program are to (1) support meritorious research, (2) expose students to research, and (3) strengthen the research environment of the institution. Awards provide limited Direct Costs, plus applicable F&A costs, for periods not to exceed 36 months. This activity code uses multi-year funding authority; however, OER approval is NOT needed prior to an IC using this activity code. |
Investigating the Neural Processing of Negative Feedback Across Rats and Humans @ Rutgers the State Univ of Nj Newark
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Individuals with substance abuse disorders often continue to seek and use illicit drugs despite the negative consequences that can arise from this behavior. In order to understand the neural basis of this behavioral inflexibility in the face of negative consequences, it is necessary to understand how negative feedback is processed in the healthy brain. Models of decision making have shown that feedback provides information to compare actual to expected outcomes of our actions, and, in this context, presentations of unpleasant outcomes and omissions of valued outcomes can both be thought of as forms of negative feedback. However, these two forms of negative feedback result in different behaviors: response rates decrease when an outcome loses its value, whereas response rates increase for omission of an expected high-value outcome. The neural systems which underlie the effects of these different forms of negative feedback have not been clearly delineated. We hypothesize that separate cortico-limbic-striatal circuits mediate different forms of negative feedback, depending on whether this feedback indicates a change in outcome probability or a change in outcome value. To examine this hypothesis, we will perform an interdisciplinary set of experiments involving research on rodents and humans. In two parallel experiments, rats and humans will perform distinct actions to obtain two types of rewarding food outcomes. Following acquisition of this task, we will manipulate outcome probability by occasionally omitting expected outcomes. In addition, we will manipulate outcome value by selectively devaluing one food outcome by allowing subjects to eat it to satiety. In Experiment 1.1, rats will undergo a neural disconnection procedure to remove basolateral amygdala (BLA) or pre-frontal cortex (PFC) inputs to the striatum, to determine the importance of these circuits in negative feedback processing using the outcome omission and devaluation tests. In Experiment 1.2, we will assess human brain activity using fMRI following the devaluation procedure, as subjects receive the devalued or the valued outcome, or an omission of the expected delivery of these outcomes. Experiment 2.1 extends this work to more abstract behavioral outcomes more typical of experimental work in humans. Positive and negative feedback indicating whether a response is correct or incorrect will be provided in a probabilistic learning task, with this feedback occasionally omitted unexpectedly. This will allow us to determine whether the negative feedback is interpreted by the brain as a devalued outcome or as the lack of a positive outcome. The interdisciplinary nature of these experiments will provide a unique training experience for undergraduate and graduate students. Furthermore, this proposal will help to bridge the gap between behavioral and cognitive neuroscience research and ultimately will aid translational approaches to understanding how neural systems underlying negative feedback processing may be compromised in drug addiction. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Understanding how negative feedback processing operates in the normal brain using natural outcomes will be useful in deciphering how impairments in these processes arise in individuals with substance abuse disorders. Furthermore, such knowledge will aid in developing therapeutic strategies to facilitate recovery from addiction.
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0.981 |
2011 |
Tricomi, Elizabeth |
R03Activity Code Description: To provide research support specifically limited in time and amount for studies in categorical program areas. Small grants provide flexibility for initiating studies which are generally for preliminary short-term projects and are non-renewable. |
Imaging the Effects of Expectations On Feedback-Based Learning @ Rutgers the State Univ of Nj Newark
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The development of drug addiction depends on the ability of drugs to activate the brain's "reward circuit," which acts to reinforce the drug-taking behavior. In order to gain insight into this process, it is important to understand the neural processes underlying reinforcement learning in the healthy brain. The striatum and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), two key regions in the brain's reward circuit, are activated not only by drugs of abuse, but also by other rewards, such as food or money. Even rewards with no extrinsic value, such as positive feedback indicating a correct answer on a difficult task, engage this system, promoting learning from the performance-related feedback. It remains unclear, however, how contextual factors such as expectations of success influence processing in these brain regions, and in turn, the amount learned from feedback. Therefore, the proposed research uses feedback-based learning as a model system for understanding how expectations influence the neural processing of behavioral reinforcers. Participants will perform a feedback- based learning task during acquisition of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Experiment 1 investigates how the abstract labels, "hard" and "easy," affect expectations of task difficulty and the neural processing of performance-related feedback. Experiment 2 manipulates difficulty expectations through a comparison with peer performance. False results from a pre-test will indicate to the participants that their performance is above or below average. The participants will then perform the feedback-based learning task as their brains are scanned with fMRI, allowing the effect of the ability labels on feedback-related signals in the striatum and OFC to be examined. These experiments will foster the initiation of a brain imaging research program on the neural mechanisms involved in motivated behavior. Such research may yield insights into how behavior could be motivated toward productive incentives, such as achievement, and away from harmful incentives, such as illicit drugs. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed experiments examine contextual influences on the brain mechanisms involved in learning from behavioral reinforcers. These same mechanisms are involved in the development of drug addiction, so the research findings may suggest principles by which the ability of drugs to act as behavioral incentives could be altered through changes in motivational context.
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0.981 |
2012 — 2017 |
Tricomi, Elizabeth |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Career: Neural Investigations of Feedback-Based Learning @ Rutgers University Newark
Performance-based feedback is widely used to aid learning by providing information about response accuracy. In addition to this informational role, feedback also plays an important motivational role. Earning the reward of positive feedback and avoiding the punishment of negative feedback can become salient goals to motivated learning. With the support of the National Science Foundation, Dr. Elizabeth Tricomi of Rutgers University is investigating how the motivational significance of feedback influences neural processing and consequent learning. She is conducting functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of learning from positive and negative feedback. One set of experiments is investigating how the amount of cognitive effort expended on a learning task influences feedback-related brain signals. A second set of experiments is investigating how motivational factors may differentially affect positive and negative feedback signals in the brain, and how this affects the relative contributions of learning from errors and from positive reinforcement. Changes in motivation to learn or to perform well may change the value that learners place on the feedback they receive. Therefore, the results of these studies will provide insight into how motivation influences value-related neural activity in the brain's "reward circuit," and how this brain activity may in turn influence the amount learned from the feedback.
In trying to understand how to best tailor educational practices to the needs of the individual, a variety of influences on learning and performance other than ability need to be considered. Because motivation is one key factor in determining how successfully information will be acquired and used, understanding the neural mechanisms by which motivation influences learning processes is important. This project is providing a significant advance in our current understanding of how the motivational and informational components of feedback combine to facilitate learning. The results are expected to have implications for educational practices, in the classroom and beyond. In addition to the research component of the project, an educational component incorporates effective teaching and learning strategies, such as student-centered learning, into the classroom at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Furthermore, a monthly professional development workshop for graduate students is promoting the retention of women in the sciences.
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1 |
2019 — 2020 |
Hanson, Stephen Delgado, Mauricio (co-PI) [⬀] Tricomi, Elizabeth Biswal, Bharat Cole, Michael (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Mri: Acquisition of a 3t Siemens Prisma At Rubic: the Evolution to a Regional Center @ Rutgers University Newark
This award provides a state of the art MRI scanners, such as the SIEMENS PRISMA magnetic resonance imager to the Rutgers University Newark. This model has ultra-fast collection times in 100s of milliseconds and sharp detail in (0.1mm) spatial resolution. The combination of these features and many other recent innovations in MRI will provide for novel research and fundamental breakthroughs in brain research, impacting on the characterization and basic understanding of mental health disease (e.g. Schziophrenia, Depression, Autism) as well as furthering more general understanding of areal connectivity within the human brain.
RUBIC is a core research center for all Rutgers campuses and a regional resource for institutions and research groups throughout the northeast corridor. Specific areas of research are immediately enabled by the PRISMA and other core areas are strengthened. These research areas include (1) Human connectome research and network neuroscience, (2) Decision science and reward learning (3). Basic research on Alzheimer's and characterization of various types of dementia. RUBIC has 25-30 PI researchers in any given research cycle, and has an active growing community of researchers at RUTGERS and in nearby institutions.
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.
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1 |