Ferrera Lab
Principal Investigator: Vincent P Ferrera
Institution: Columbia University (New York, NY)
Primary Subfield: Neuroscience
Recruitment Status: Inquire for rotation/fellowship opportunities
Research Focus
Project Summary Reinforcement learning (RL) is a powerful framework for understanding outcome-driven behavior and its neural basis. A key issue for RL is how to incorporate an ability to make inferences that allow appropriate responding to novel conditions not encountered during training. Inference relies on the detection of latent relationships that predict rewards but are not signaled by explicit cues. In the previous funding period, we developed behavioral and computational approaches to rigorously address this problem, and made single-cell neurophysiological observations that began to reveal how the brain represents latent structures. Here, we re-conceptualize this problem as one of using a cognitive map to represent latent order and support inference. We propose to test this idea with a newly developed behavioral approach, which allows unprecedented insight into the role of cortico-striatal neural circuits and ascending neuromodulatory systems in model-based RL. These investigations will focus on brain regions that neurophysiology, neuroimaging, and lesion studies suggest have important roles in implicit serial learning, specifically dorsolateral (dlPFC) and ventromedial prefr…
Active NIH Awards
- 5R01MH111703-09: Implicit serial learning (2026)
- 5R01MH133020-04: Focused ultrasound for memory disorders (2026)
- 5R01MH133020-03: Focused ultrasound for memory disorders (2025)
- 5R01MH111703-08: Implicit serial learning (2025)
- 5R01MH111703-07: Implicit serial learning (2024)
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