Wednesday 13 May 2009 | 16:00 - 17:00Location: Doelenzaal, Singel 425, Amsterdam
prof. dr. Francisco Barcelo
Professor of Psychobiology, Director, Research Group in Clinical Neuropsychology,
University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), Spain
Uncertainty, Cognitive Control and the Brain
We live in an uncertain world, constantly besieged by novel information demanding adaptive actions. ‘Learn or perish’ seems a motto evolution has imprinted in our brains, as efficient cognitive functioning requires the brain to keep an updated registry of statistical regularities across the sensory and motor domains, in order to increase reward and minimise harm. This register keeps track of past sensorimotor contingencies, so as to allow us to anticipate future events and the consequences of our actions. In recent years, there has been renewed interest in the quantification of stimulus and response uncertainty using Information Theory and Bayesian computational tools. In my talk I will present applications of these tools as part of an integrative view of cognitive control to describe and explain the participants’ behaviour and brain responses across many situations taxing cognitive resources, from behavioural distraction and task switching, to context processing deficits in patients with prefrontal lesions. I will argue that information tools offer a dimensionless yardstick for assessing the universal properties of human working memory across different task contexts, and independent of specific sensory or motor demands to attended and ignored stimuli. New insights from this approach can help to clarify, for instance, a long-standing dispute about the role of some positive-going brain potentials in humans. Finally, a reappraisal of previous results and prospects for future developments in mind-brain research will be discussed.