Research in the PANLab examines the role of sensory systems in producing environment-appropriate actions, what most people call decision making. Sensory processing is ubiquitous in our interactions with the environment, is performed with extreme efficiency, and forms the basis for many of our routine daily decisions and actions. The questions in my lab have ranged from how sensory modalities are integrated to how sensory evidence accumulation contributes to decisions and actions to the contribution of sensory systems to reward processing. More recently, we are examining these questions in semi-naturalistic environments and asking questions about conflict, risk, and learning. We largely use fMRI as a method, but through collaborations have also used psychophysics, self-report, EEG, and TMS. We also examine task-based changes in functional connectivity as a way to understand brain function.
Evidence Accumulation: A pervasive idea in cognitive science is that decisions are the result of a comparison of sensory data/evidence that is accumulated over time until reaching an evidence threshold. Findings from both neurophysiology and neuroimaging now suggest that the brain solves the problem of perceptual decision-making using a similar accumulator mechanism. Using accumulators as a framework, the PANLab seeks to understand how the brain processes sensory evidence to understand the environment and ultimately take appropriate action.
Sensorimotor mechanisms of cognition: A principle in the PANLab is that Aristotelian/Galilean functions like memory, attention, reward, fear, salience, reasoning, planning, executive or others, are outdated. Behavior, including cognition, should be explained with reference to how sensory data can be filtered or integrated to produce environment-appropriate actions. Perceptual phenomena are not the end-goal of the brain, only a stage in the action cycle (or not even that, quite possibly an epiphenomenon). Sensory systems are not passive and whenever possible, should be studied in active, closed-loop settings.
Semi-naturalistic environments: There is a tradeoff in behavioral science between ecological validity and experimental control. When appropriate for the research question, we use video-game-like environments to increase validity. Like the real world, video games are closed-loop and interactive, include other agents, and ellicit motivated behavior. Less-constrained environments challenge assumptions about the definitions of decisions, choices, and actions.