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SUMMARY:Neural mechanisms for credit assignment and model building - Natha
 niel Daw\, Princeton University 
DTSTART:20230509T151500Z
DTEND:20230509T170000Z
UID:TALK200197@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Prof Máté Lengyel
DESCRIPTION:In realistic choice tasks\, especially sequential ones like ma
 zes\, actions are separated from their consequences by many steps of space
  and time. A central computational problem in decision making -- which ari
 ses in various guises such as credit assignment and planning -- is spannin
 g these gaps to work out the long-term consequences of candidate actions. 
 I review recent experimental and theoretical work aimed at understanding t
 he mechanisms by which the brain solves this problem. First\, I review a n
 ew study that monitors neural signatures of reward expectancy in rodents t
 o monitor how the brain propagates information about individual experience
 s with outcomes to distal choicepoints. Second\, I report ongoing theoreti
 cal work that aims to clarify how the brain can judiciously build and main
 tain cognitive maps so as to achieve effective decisions while minimizing 
 computational costs. This offers a formal\, resource-rational perspective 
 on a range of issues such as habits and slips of action in the healthy bra
 in\, but also may explain dysfunctions such as compulsion\, rumination\, a
 nd avoidance.
LOCATION:Hodgkin-Huxley Seminar Room + Zoom
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