Cognition across the life span

Goal-directed behavior results from the interaction of bottom-up sensory processing and top-down executive control. At short timescales, neural activity underlying this interaction is regulated by learning and homeostatic mechanisms, which are mediated through synaptic plasticity and neuromodulation. At a much longer timescale, arching from cognitive development to aging, neural activity is strongly influenced by changes in brain anatomy and functional connectivity.

Studies that analyze behavioral flexibility throughout this hierarchy of timescales are rare. This line of research utilizes a rule-based decision task and combines experimental procedures (psychophysics and neuroimaging) with computational approaches (reinforcement learning and neural circuit modeling) to encompass the dynamics, rise and decline of goal-directed behavior in humans.