Neurocomputational mechanisms underlying adaptive flexibility in cognition, emotion and behavior

forthcoming

The ability to adapt behavior to unfamiliar situations is crucial in our complex and ever-changing world. In such circumstances, we often rely on the statistical structure of our environment, allowing us to generalize previously learned behaviors to new, similar situations. Two brain regions are key to this flexibility: the hippocampus, which creates cognitive maps that represent the structure of the world, and the prefrontal cortex, which accesses and uses these representations based on current task demands. In addition to their cognitive functions, both regions are also involved in regulating emotional aspects of our experiences. However, even though it is often the interplay between cognition and emotion that plays a central role in well-being and psychopathology, cognition and emotion are often studied in isolation. CogFlex challenges this compartmentalized view and proposes a unified framework, suggesting that emotions directly shape how we represent the world and thereby influence how we generalize, update, and act on information. Using a combination of sophisticated human neuroscience methods, including high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), intracranial recordings, and advanced computational models, CogFlex will offer unprecedented details in how the human brain forms, uses, updates and selects cognitive maps and how emotions interact with these processes. Notably, CogFlex will move beyond observing correlations by non-invasively manipulating hippocampal and prefrontal representations using transcranial temporal interference stimulation (tTIS), offering causal insight into the role these brain regions play in selecting and using cognitive maps for guiding flexible behavior. Through this integrative approach, CogFlex will provide a deep mechanistic understanding of the neurobiological basis of flexible behavior and lay the foundation for more personalized mental health interventions based on individual cognitive-affective phenotypes