Efficiently running our lives often requires
us to juggle a wide variety of different goals.
These range from the very simple ("I'd like a
cup of coffee") to the very complex ("I'd like
to be a good parent").
This ability depends on an area of the brain called
the prefrontal cortex, an area that reaches its
greatest complexity in humans. People with
damage to the prefrontal cortex lead extremely
disorganized lives and have difficulty planning
even simple activities. Our research is focused on
understanding how goals are represented in the
prefrontal cortex, and how these goals are then
used to control our actions.
For information about specific projects, click on the links below:
1. Representation of reward in working memory
2. Learning from positive and negative feedback
3. Decision-making weighing cost and benefit
4. Goal-directed and habitual control of action
5. Prefrontal mechanisms of hierarchical reinforcement learning
1. Representation of reward in working memory
2. Learning from positive and negative feedback
3. Decision-making weighing cost and benefit
4. Goal-directed and habitual control of action
5. Prefrontal mechanisms of hierarchical reinforcement learning
Wallis Lab