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Oscillatory mechanisms for allocating optimal effort

Performing cognitive tasks (reasoning, problem solving) can be effortful, and humans tend to exert effort only when it’s worthwhile. But how do we decide whether to allocate the ‘control force’ that allows us to prepare for, and focus on our cognitive problems? And what are the neural mechanisms mediating the allocation of cognitive effort?

Frontal-Midline-Theta (FMT) oscillations have been proposed to reflect the biophysical mechanism by which cognitive control manifests (Cavanagh & Frank, 2014). This oscillatory electric signal is commonly observed, on the scalp EEG, in association with a range of events that convey a prediction error (i.e., a sort of surprise). It has also been proposed that FMT may reflect the output of a high-level controller (the medial frontal cortex, mPFC) that synchronizes downstream brain areas (Verguts, 2017), when effortful control is needed. Here, we test the hypothesis that this putative communication mechanism can be adopted as a marker of proactive control allocation.

Adopting a ‘Cognitive anticipation task’, we measure and analyze EEG oscillatory activity while participants are preparing for solving arithmetic operations. We predict that FMT will be modulated by the factors i) task difficulty, and ii) expected reward, in line with an optimal effort signal (e.g., try hard only when it’s worthwhile!). More broadly, this project will provide a framework to understand and assess cognitive effort.

 

Methods

EEG 

 

Contact

Dr. Davide Gheza, davide.gheza@uni-goettingen.de