Molecular mechanisms of flexible decision making

• Project/Area Number: 26290008
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Neurophysiology / General neuroscience
• Research Institution: University of Yamanashi (2016); Juntendo University (2014-2015)
• Principal Investigator: UKA Takanori 山梨大学, 総合研究部, 教授 (50372933)
• Research Collaborator: SUDA Yuki
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2016)
• Budget Amount: ¥16,120,000 (Direct Cost: ¥12,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥3,720,000); Fiscal Year 2016: ¥4,810,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,110,000); Fiscal Year 2015: ¥8,840,000 (Direct Cost: ¥6,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥2,040,000); Fiscal Year 2014: ¥2,470,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥570,000)
• Keywords: 脳・神経

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Flexible decision making is a hallmark of human cognition. Subanesthetic dose of ketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, impairs such flexibility, but how it affects decision making circuits remains unclear. We recorded single unit activity in the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) while monkeys switched between a direction discrimination task and a depth discrimination task. Ketamine administration increased neural sensitivity to irrelevant information, and delayed the onset of decision-related neural activity. These results suggest that ketamine affected "what" information to process and "when" to process it.

Research Products

• [Journal Article] Context-dependent accumulation of sensory evidence in the parietal cortex underlies flexible task switching. (2016)
  • Author(s): Kumano H, Suda Y, Uka T.
  • Journal Title: J Neurosci Volume: 36 Issue: 48 Pages: 12192-12202
  • DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1693-16.2016
  • Peer Reviewed / Acknowledgement Compliant
• [Journal Article] Visual impairment by surrounding noise is due to interactions among stimuli in the higher-order visual cortex. (2014)
  • Author(s): Kumano H, Uka T
  • Journal Title: J Neurophysiol Volume: 112 Issue: 3 Pages: 620-630
  • DOI: 10.1152/jn.00639.2013
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Presentation] NMDAR antagonist ketamine increases sensitivity to irrelevant information in the parietal cortex. (2016)
  • Author(s): Uka T, Suda Y.
  • Organizer: 第39回日本神経科学大会
  • Place of Presentation: パシフィコ横浜（神奈川県・横浜市）
  • Year and Date: 2016-07-20
• [Presentation] NMDAR antagonist ketamine affects sensitivity to irrelevant information and onset of build-up activity in the parietal cortex. (2016)
  • Author(s): Suda Y, Uka T.
  • Organizer: Neuroscience 2016
  • Place of Presentation: San Diego（アメリカ）
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Neural mechanisms of decision formation: Front-line research of perceptual and value-based decision making (2015)
  • Author(s): Uka T
  • Organizer: 第38回日本神経科学大会
  • Place of Presentation: 神戸
  • Year and Date: 2015-07-28
• [Presentation] Movement-specific employment of sensory signals as a basis for rapid task switching. (2015)
  • Author(s): Uka T, Sasaki R, Mitani A
  • Organizer: 第92回日本生理学会大会
  • Place of Presentation: 神戸
  • Year and Date: 2015-03-21 – 2015-03-23
• [Presentation] LIP neurons accumulate relevant information depending on task demand. (2014)
  • Author(s): Suda Y, Kumano H, Uka T
  • Organizer: 第36回日本神経科学大会
  • Place of Presentation: 横浜
  • Year and Date: 2014-09-11 – 2014-09-13