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SUMMARY:Computational Neuroscience Journal Club - James Heald (CBL)
DTSTART:20160920T150000Z
DTEND:20160920T160000Z
UID:TALK67684@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Daniel McNamee
DESCRIPTION:James Heald will cover:\n\n* A Representation of Effort in Dec
 ision-Making and Motor Control\n* Reza Shadmehr\, Helen Huang\, Alaa Ahmed
 \n* Current Biology (July 2016)\n* "Link to paper":http://www.cell.com/cur
 rent-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(16)30565-6\n\nABSTRACT:\nGiven two reward
 ing stimuli\, animals tend to choose the more rewarding (or less effortful
 ) option. However\, they also move faster toward that stimulus [ 1–5 ]. 
 This suggests that reward and effort not only affect decision-making\, the
 y also influence motor control [ 6\, 7 ]. How does the brain compute the e
 ffort requirements of a task? Here\, we considered data acquired during wa
 lking\, reaching\, flying\, or isometric force production. In analyzing th
 e decision-making and motor-control behaviors of various animals\, we cons
 idered the possibility that the brain may estimate effort objectively\, vi
 a the metabolic energy consumed to produce the action. We measured the ene
 rgetic cost of reaching and found that\, like walking\, it was convex in t
 ime\, with a global minimum\, implying that there existed a movement speed
  that minimized effort. However\, reward made it worthwhile to be energeti
 cally inefficient. Using a framework in which utility of an action depende
 d on reward and energetic cost\, both discounted in time\, we found that i
 t was possible to account for a body of data in which animals were free to
  choose how to move (reach slow or fast)\, as well as what to do (walk or 
 fly\, produce force F1 or F2). We suggest that some forms of decision-maki
 ng and motor control may share a common utility in which the brain represe
 nts the effort associated with performing an action objectively via its me
 tabolic energy cost and then\, like reward\, temporally discounts it as a 
 function of movement duration.
LOCATION:Cambridge University Engineering Department\, CBL\, BE-438 (http:
 //learning.eng.cam.ac.uk/Public/Directions)
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