WIP Special

Causal role of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex in learning-rate adaptation to volatility: a within-subject TUS and TMS study 

Presented by Anika Gogia

Abstract: This study investigates how the brain adapts its rate of learning when the environment becomes more or less predictable (“volatility”), and whether temporarily modulating activity in a deep brain region, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), changes this adaptation. We will test this in healthy adult volunteers using two established non-invasive brain stimulation techniques: transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS), which can reach deep brain structures, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Each participant attends three sessions in which they receive, in a counterbalanced order, sham (placebo) stimulation, bilateral TUS to the dACC, or bilateral TMS to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), a region functionally connected to the dACC, before completing a computer-based learning task. Comparing performance across the three sessions will test whether directly (via TUS) or indirectly (via TMS) modulating the dACC changes how people adapt their learning to volatility.

Presented by Bjorn Sigurdsson

Details tbc