Biomedical subjects

Jessica A Aronson

Publications and source records attributed to Jessica A Aronson.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Between-task competition and cognitive control in task switching.

Cognitive control is required to regulate interactions between brain regions to produce effective, purposeful behavior. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the nature of these interactions and the role of prefrontal cortex (PFC) in cognitive control as subjects switched between simple face and word categorization tasks. Face and word stimuli were used because previous research has shown them to activate distinguishable cortical regions, allowing us to measure levels of activity in task-selective brain regions during task switching. We found that activity in brain regions selective for the currently irrelevant task predicted the behavioral cost associated with switching tasks. This finding supports the theory that between-task competition is a critical determinant of behavior. Task switching was also associated with increased activity in a network of regions implicated in cognitive control, including lateral PFC and parietal cortex. Within this network of regions, we observed dissociations between task-selective and general purpose mechanisms. These findings provide support for theories that propose a control hierarchy comprising regions responsible for maintaining task-specific information about rules or goals, and regions involved in the coordination of these goals.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Opposing BOLD responses to reciprocated and unreciprocated altruism in putative reward pathways.

Mesencephalic dopamine neurons are believed to facilitate reward-dependent learning by computing errors in reward predictions. We used fMRI to test whether this system was activated as expected in response to errors in predictions about whether a social partner would reciprocate an act of altruism. Nineteen subjects received fMRI scans as they played a series of single-shot Prisoner's Dilemma games with partners who were outside the scanner. In both ventromedial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum, reciprocated and unreciprocated cooperation were associated with positive and negative BOLD responses, respectively. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that mesencephalic dopamine projection sites carry information about errors in reward prediction that allow us to learn who can and cannot be trusted to reciprocate favors.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

The neural correlates of theory of mind within interpersonal interactions.

Tasks that engage a theory of mind seem to activate a consistent set of brain areas. In this study, we sought to determine whether two different interactive tasks, both of which involve receiving consequential feedback from social partners that can be used to infer intent, similarly engaged the putative theory of mind neural network. Participants were scanned using fMRI as they played the Ultimatum Game (UG) and the Prisoner's Dilemma Game (PDG) with both alleged human and computer partners who were outside the scanner. We observed a remarkable degree of overlap in brain areas that activated to partner decisions in the two games, including commonly observed theory of mind areas, as well as several brain areas that have not been reported previously and may relate to immersion of participants in real social interactions that have personally meaningful consequences. Although computer partners elicited activation in some of the same areas activated by human partners, most of these activations were stronger for human partners.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

The neural basis of economic decision-making in the Ultimatum Game.

The nascent field of neuroeconomics seeks to ground economic decision making in the biological substrate of the brain. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging of Ultimatum Game players to investigate neural substrates of cognitive and emotional processes involved in economic decision-making. In this game, two players split a sum of money;one player proposes a division and the other can accept or reject this. We scanned players as they responded to fair and unfair proposals. Unfair offers elicited activity in brain areas related to both emotion (anterior insula) and cognition (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). Further, significantly heightened activity in anterior insula for rejected unfair offers suggests an important role for emotions in decision-making.

Adult↗