Shauna Parkes(CR, DECAD) has been awarded a CNRS PRC (Programme de recherche conjoint) research grant in collaboration with Dr. Laura Corbit at the University of Toronto. The project, entitled Neurocognitive bases of behavioural control, will support mobility between the two laboratories for the researchers and their PhD students. Here’s a summary of their planned collaborative research:
Each day we make decisions in order to fulfil basic needs and desires. While some decisions require careful consideration and deliberation, others are made routinely with little or no conscious thought. Research in the last 10 years has advanced our understanding of how goal-directed and habitual behaviors are acquired and the brain regions that support them. Yet, we still know little about how the brain dynamically coordinates the activity of these systems. In particular, once a behavior becomes routine or habitual, how does the brain suppress this automatic behavior when environmental contingencies change? This question is important not only from a basic science perspective, but also for understanding failures of behavioral control that mark numerous neuropsychiatric diseases. This project draws on our expertise in the neurocognitive bases of decision making to tackle the question of how habitual behaviors are regulated.
Left: Laura Corbit
Right : Shauna Parkes