Post date: Jun 12, 2014 8:17:58 AM
An emerging model system for the study of goal-directed choice and planning at the neurobiological level is the recording and manipulation of “place cells” in the hippocampus of rats solving navigation problems. Sequences of place cell activity can be decoded to reveal signatures of a planning process: possible trajectories are represented serially at decision points and following reward receipt, and include constructed, never-experienced trajectories (Johnson & Redish 2007; Pfeiffer & Foster 2013; van der Meer et al 2012).
Recent evidence suggests that "internally generated sequences" are a flexible resource that can support goal-directed decision-making, "vicarious trial and error" (VTA), the recombination of previous experiences to plan novel trajectories, learning and memory consolidation; some of these functions have been studied computationally (Pezzulo et al., 2014; Pezzulo et al 2013; Chersi and Pezzulo 2012; Penny et al 2013).
However, there are several unknowns --for example, if and how this mechanism works in complex environments, or whether it can support non-spatial forms of planning such as "mental time travel" and other advanced (human) cognitive abilities that recruit the hippocampus and require the flexible recombination of previous memories. I am studying this topic from a combined experimental and computational perspective within the project "Beyond simple choices: computational and neuronal mechanisms for complex spatial behaviors" funded by the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP).
Selected pubs:
Pezzulo, G., Kemere, C., van der Meer, M. (2017) Internally generated hippocampal sequences as a vantage point to probe future-oriented cognition. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1396, 144-165 [link]
Pezzulo, G., van der Meer MA, Lansink, C. S., Pennartz, C. (2014) Internally generated sequences in learning and executing goal-directed behavior. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 18(12), 647–657 [link]
Chersi, F. and Pezzulo, G. (2012). Using hippocampal-striatal loops for spatial navigation and goal-directed decision-making. Cognitive Processing, 13(1):125–129. [link]
Pezzulo, G., Rigoli, F., Chersi F. (2013) The Mixed Instrumental Controller: Using Value of Information to Combine Habitual Choice and Mental Simulation. Frontiers in Psychology 4:92. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00092 [link]
Other pubs:
Johnson, A. & Redish, A. D. (2007) Neural ensembles in CA3 transiently encode paths forward of the animal at a decision point. J Neurosci, 27, 12176-12189
Penny, W. D.; Zeidman, P. & Burgess, N. F. (2013) Forward and Backward Inference in Spatial Cognition PLoS Computational Biology, 9, e1003383
Pfeiffer, B. E. & Foster, D. J. (2013) Hippocampal place-cell sequences depict future paths to remembered goals Nature, 497, 74–-79
van der Meer, M.; Kurth-Nelson, Z. & Redish, A. D. (2012) Information processing in decision-making systems. Neuroscientist, 18, 342-359