Investigating phenotypes of choice using computational fMRI

In this project, we will investigate how we make decisions and how decision processes take place in the brain. To do so, we will use functional magnetic resonance imaging and a theoretical model of decision processes, which allows us to classify individual decision-making behaviour according to subject specific parameters. Specifically, we will investigate whether subject-specific parameters can be generalised over different tasks, such that estimated parameters in one task are predictive of behaviour in another task. To investigate this we will use two tasks that have been previously validated in experimental studies. In addition, we will investigate whether these parameters correlate with individual traits such as impulsivity and sensation seeking measures. Furthermore, we will investigate how structural and functional brain-networks relate to these individual parameters. Subjects will be scanned in a magnetic resonance tomograph measuring individual neuronal connectivity in the brain. Subsequently, we will test whether individual parameters correlate with individual connectivity measures and thus with subjects individual neuronal brain- architecture. Lastly, we will perform a task to investigate fundamental choice tendencies in decision processes and how these tendencies are represented in brain function, again using magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain activity during decision-processes. Crucially, we predict that in addition to maximising utility (i.e., seeking the most valuable outcome), subjects will also try to gain new information and sample informative states. Our project will be instantiated via a collaboration between the Centre for Neurocognitive Research of the University of Salzburg and the Wellcome Trust Centre of Neuroimaging of the University College London, namely the research groups of Profs Weiskopf (Physics), Friston (Theoretical Neurobiology) and Dolan (Cognition, Emotion and Psychiatric Disorders). We intend to join the expertise of our centres to provide new insights into mechanisms underlying choice and its neuronal underpinnings. 1

This project aimed for a better understanding on how humans make decisions and how decision making in different tasks is related. This will enable us to develop methods to examine aberrant and altered decision making in mental and brain disorders. Altogether, we collected data from three decision making tests and a large battery of questionnaires assessing personality traits from 70 subjects. From all subjects we also collected data on functional and structural neuroanatomy using MRI. This data provides the opportunity to explore relationships between decision making, its internal cognitive architecture and its relationship to brain function and structure and will have future applications in deriving cognitive phenotypes in clinical populations. Furthermore, in the course of the project we were able to provide important data on the brain and cognitive alterations in schizophrenia and patients suffering from pathological gambling.