Shielding working memory from distraction is more effortful than flexible updating

Papadopetraki, Danae; Froboese, M.I.; Westbrook, Andrew; Zandbelt, Bram B.; Cools, Roshan

doi:10.1101/743120

Cited by 11 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…Before drug intake, participants performed the working memory task. Across sessions and in line with earlier work [42], participants performed poorer when working memory load increased, as indicated by Figure 2A-B).…”

Section: Working Memory Performancesupporting

confidence: 87%

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Methylphenidate boosts choices of mental labor over leisure depending on baseline striatal dopamine

Hofmans

Papadopetraki²,

Bosch

et al. 2019

Preprint

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The cognitive enhancing effects of methylphenidate are well established, but the mechanisms remain unclear. We recently demonstrated that methylphenidate boosts cognitive motivation by enhancing the weight on the benefits of a cognitive task in a manner that depended on striatal dopamine. Here we considered the complementary hypothesis that methylphenidate might also act by changing the weight on the opportunity cost of a cognitive task. To this end, fifty healthy participants (25 women) completed a novel cognitive effort discounting task that was sensitive to opportunity cost, and required choices between task and leisure. They were tested on methylphenidate, sulpiride or placebo and also underwent an [18F]DOPA PET scan to quantify baseline dopamine synthesis capacity. Methylphenidate boosted choices of cognitive effort over leisure across the group, and this effect was greatest in participants with more striatal dopamine at baseline. The effects of sulpiride did not reach significance. This study strengthens the motivational account of methylphenidate’s effects on cognition and suggests that methylphenidate reduces the cost of mental labor by increasing striatal dopamine.

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Section: Working Memory Performancesupporting

confidence: 87%

“…The color wheel task ( Figure 1A) is a delayed response working memory task assessing two distinct component processes of cognitive control: distractor resistance and flexible updating [41,42]. A more detailed description of the paradigm and a discussion on flexibility versus stability are reported in the Supplementary information.…”

Section: Behavioral Paradigmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methylphenidate boosts choices of mental labor over leisure depending on baseline striatal dopamine

Hofmans

Papadopetraki²,

Bosch

et al. 2019

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…The switch cost is taken as an inverse measure of cognitive flexibility: the less the switch cost, the greater the cognitive flexibility. Finally, the stability-flexibility tradeoff can also be assessed in working memory tasks, in which cognitive stability is measured as the ability to actively maintain items in the presence of distractors, and cognitive flexibility is measured as ability to encode and maintain new items [145]. either a circle or a square) that instructs participants which task to perform (e.g.…”

Section: Box 3: Measuring Cognitive Stability and Flexibility In The mentioning

confidence: 99%

Rationalizing Constraints on the Capacity for Cognitive Control

Musslick¹,

Cohen²

2020

Preprint

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Humans are remarkably limited in (a) how many control-dependent tasks they can execute simultaneously, and (b) how intensely they can focus on a single task. These limitations are universal assumptions of most theories of cognition. Yet, a rationale for why humans are subject to these constraints remains elusive. This review draws on recent insights from psychology, neuroscience and machine learning, to suggest that constraints on cognitive control may result from a rational adaptation to fundamental computational dilemmas in neural architectures. The reviewed literature implies that limitations in multitasking may result from a tradeoff between learning efficacy and processing efficiency, and that limitations in the intensity of commitment to a single task may reflect a tradeoff between cognitive stability and flexibility.

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“…(13,14)). This directly relates to an agents' motivation to perform a given task (11,15,16), as increasing an information demand in one process automatically reduces its availability for others (12). In real-world highly dynamic environments, this arbitration is critical as humans need to maintain resources for alternative opportunities (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human complex exploration strategies are enriched by noradrenaline-modulated heuristics

Dubois

Habicht

Michely

et al. 2021

eLife

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An exploration-exploitation trade-off, the arbitration between sampling a lesser-known against a known rich option, is thought to be solved using computationally demanding exploration algorithms. Given known limitations in human cognitive resources, we hypothesised the presence of additional cheaper strategies. We examined for such heuristics in choice behaviour where we show this involves a value-free random exploration, that ignores all prior knowledge, and a novelty exploration that targets novel options alone. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled drug study, assessing contributions of dopamine (400 mg amisulpride) and noradrenaline (40 mg propranolol), we show that value-free random exploration is attenuated under the influence of propranolol, but not under amisulpride. Our findings demonstrate that humans deploy distinct computationally cheap exploration strategies and that value-free random exploration is under noradrenergic control.

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Shielding working memory from distraction is more effortful than flexible updating

Cited by 11 publications

References 77 publications

Methylphenidate boosts choices of mental labor over leisure depending on baseline striatal dopamine

Methylphenidate boosts choices of mental labor over leisure depending on baseline striatal dopamine

Rationalizing Constraints on the Capacity for Cognitive Control

Human complex exploration strategies are enriched by noradrenaline-modulated heuristics

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