Integrative neuroscience approach to neuro-dynamical mechanisms of disconnection syndrome

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25330301
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Soft computing
• Research Institution: National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry (2015-2017); The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (2013-2014)
• Principal Investigator: Yamashita Yuichi 国立研究開発法人国立精神・神経医療研究センター, 神経研究所 疾病研究第七部, 室長 (40584131)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 神経回路モデル / 認知ロボティクス / 計算論的精神医学 / 統合失調症 / 自閉スペクトラム障害

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research project, an aberrant sensory precision account, which is one of the normative theories of psychiatric disorders, was tested utilizing a recurrent neural network model. In particular, we focused on the effects of changes in estimated sensory precision on adaptive behavior via prediction error minimization mechanisms. To distinguish dysfunction at behavioral and network level, we employed a humanoid robot driven by the neural network and observed ball-playing interactions with a human experimenter.
The experimental results demonstrated that both increased and decreased sensory precision induced abnormal behaviors such as freezing and repetitive behaviors. These results may provide a system level explanation of different types of behavioral abnormality in psychiatric diseases.

Free Research Field

計算論的精神医学