Cognitive and behavioural flexibility: neural mechanisms and clinical considerations

Uddin, Lucina Q.

doi:10.1038/s41583-021-00428-w

Cited by 359 publications

(326 citation statements)

References 144 publications

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“…We hope this discussion will help to generate enthusiasm for adopting a more dynamic perspective in attempting to understand the emergence of mental phenomena from biophysical processes. It may be difficult to overstate the importance of network flexibility for not just basic, but also applied sciences, since psychological flexibility constitutes a general factor for resilience across clinical and non-clinical contexts (Davis et al, 2020;Hayes, 2019;Hinton & Kirmayer, 2017;Uddin, 2021). Perhaps more fundamentally, there may be few things more impactful than obtaining a better understanding of factors contributing to the abilities of systems to adapt in a complex, uncertain, and constantly changing world.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the importance of being flexible: dynamic brain networks and their potential functional significances

Safron¹,

Klimaj²,

Hipólito³

2021

Preprint

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In this theoretical review, we begin by discussing brains and minds from a dynamical systems perspective, and then go on to describe methods for characterizing the flexibility of dynamic networks. We discuss how varying degrees and kinds of flexibility may be adaptive (or maladaptive) in different contexts, specifically focusing on measures related to either more disjoint or cohesive dynamics. While disjointed flexibility may be useful for assessing neural entropy, cohesive flexibility may potentially serve as a proxy for self-organized criticality as a fundamental property enabling adaptive behavior in complex systems. Particular attention is given to recent studies in which flexibility methods have been used to investigate neurological and cognitive maturation, as well as the breakdown of conscious processing under varying levels of anesthesia. We further discuss how these findings and methods might be contextualized within the Free Energy Principle as a fundamental principle of brain organization, and describe potential methodological advances from this paradigm. Finally, with relevance to computational psychiatry, we propose a research program for obtaining a better understanding of ways that dynamic networks may relate to different forms of psychological flexibility, which may be the single most important factor for ensuring human flourishing.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the importance of being flexible: dynamic brain networks and their potential functional significances

Safron¹,

Klimaj²,

Hipólito³

2021

Preprint

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“…During the extradimensional shift, rats are rewarded for using a previously unrewarded exemplar to guide decision-making. Although cognitive flexibility refers to an organisms’ ability to switch between stimuli dimensions or strategies in order to respond adaptively, this phenomenon necessitates the ability to inhibit a more automatic response in favor of a less automatic response, and this how often made it difficult to parse differences in the neurobiological mechanisms underlying flexibility and those underlying inhibitory control [ 114 ].…”

Section: Functional Dissection Of Inhibitory Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The cerebellum in particular, which has direct connections with RN and seems more than likely to be involved in facilitating control, need further investigation and incorporation into existing frameworks. Moreover, understanding whether and how the circuitry underlying inhibitory control changes across the lifespan is important, as deficits in control generally, as well as specific deficits in proactive and reactive forms of inhibitory control, are common symptoms of numerous neurological and neuropsychiatric illnesses [ 36 , 114 , 163 ].…”

Section: Summary and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reactive and Proactive Adaptation of Cognitive and Motor Neural Signals during Performance of a Stop-Change Task

Brockett

Roesch

2021

Brain Sciences

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The ability to inhibit or suppress unwanted or inappropriate actions, is an essential component of executive function and cognitive health. The immense selective pressure placed on maintaining inhibitory control processes is exemplified by the relatively small number of instances in which these systems completely fail in the average person’s daily life. Although mistakes and errors do inevitably occur, inhibitory control systems not only ensure that this number is low, but have also adapted behavioral strategies to minimize future failures. The ability of our brains to adapt our behavior and appropriately engage proper motor responses is traditionally depicted as the primary domain of frontal brain areas, despite evidence to the fact that numerous other brain areas contribute. Using the stop-signal task as a common ground for comparison, we review a large body of literature investigating inhibitory control processes across frontal, temporal, and midbrain structures, focusing on our recent work in rodents, in an effort to understand how the brain biases action selection and adapts to the experience of conflict.

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“…Behavioural adjustment to novel situations is necessary in order to adaptively modify behaviour in dynamic environments, and requires information updating and monitoring necessary for effective cue processing and strategy definition (Seu et al, 2009; Dajani and Uddin, 2015; Uddin, 2021). Consequently, deficits in these processes considerably impact individuals’ ability to learn from the outcomes of their actions and might decrease the quality of their decisions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronic distress in male mice impairs motivation compromising both effort and reward processing with altered anterior insular cortex and basolateral amygdala neural activation

Cabeza

Ramadan

Cramoisy

et al. 2021

Preprint

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In humans and mammals, effort-based decision-making for monetary or food rewards paradigms contribute to the study of adaptive goal-directed behaviours acquired through reinforcement learning. Chronic distress modelled by repeated exposure to glucocorticoids in rodents induces suboptimal decision-making under uncertainty by impinging on instrumental acquisition and prompting negative valence behaviours. In order to further disentangle the motivational tenets of adaptive decision-making, this study addressed the consequences of enduring distress on relevant effort and reward processing dimensions. Experimentally, appetitive and consummatory components of motivation were evaluated in adult C57BL/6JRj male mice experiencing chronic distress induced by oral corticosterone (CORT), using multiple complementary discrete behavioural tests. Behavioural data (from Novelty Supressed Feeding, operant effort-based choice, Free Feeding and Sucrose Preference tasks) collectively show that behavioural initiation, effort allocation and hedonic appreciation and valuation are altered in mice exposed to several weeks of oral CORT treatment. Additionally, data analysis from FosB immunohistochemical processing of postmortem brain samples highlight a CORT-dependent dampening of neural activation in the anterior insular cortex (aIC) and basolateral amygdala (BLA), key telencephalic brain regions involved in cue appetitive and consummatory motivational processing. Combined, these results suggest that chronic distress-induced irregular aIC and BLA neural activations with reduced effort production and attenuated reward value processing during reinforcement-based instrumental learning could result in maladaptive decision-making under uncertainty. The current study further illustrates how the stoichiometry of effort and reward processing contributes to dynamically adjust the motivational threshold triggering goal-directed behaviours in versatile environments.

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Cognitive and behavioural flexibility: neural mechanisms and clinical considerations

Cited by 359 publications

References 144 publications

On the importance of being flexible: dynamic brain networks and their potential functional significances

On the importance of being flexible: dynamic brain networks and their potential functional significances

Reactive and Proactive Adaptation of Cognitive and Motor Neural Signals during Performance of a Stop-Change Task

Chronic distress in male mice impairs motivation compromising both effort and reward processing with altered anterior insular cortex and basolateral amygdala neural activation

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