PhD Dissertation Defense of Aleksei Gorin

Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience (Center for Cognition and Decision Making) is pleased to annouce the Ph.D. defense of Aleksei Gorin which will take place on 16th December, 2021 at 14.00. Thesis title: "Sensory neuroplacity elicited by auditory cued monetary outcomes". The defense will be held online.

Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience (Center for Cognition and Decision Making) is pleased to annouce the Ph.D. defense of Aleksei Gorin which will take place on  16th December, 2021  at  14.00.  

Thesis title : "Sensory neuroplacity elicited by auditory cued monetary outcomes".
Academic advisor : Prof. Anna Shestakova, PhD, Director of the CDM center, Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience

Abstract :
Numerous cognitive studies have demonstrated experience-induced plasticity in the primary sensory cortex, indicating that repeated decisions could modulate sensory processing. In this context, we investigated whether an auditory version of the monetary incentive delay (MID) task could change the neural processing of the incentive cues that code expected monetary outcomes. To study sensory plasticity, we presented the incentive cues as deviants during auditory oddball sessions recorded before and after training during the two MID task sessions, where we focused on the changes in mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a components. We found that negative outcomes were accompanied by appearance of the feedback-related negativity (FRN), which amplitude was modulated by probability and magnitude of the monetary outcome. In the oddball sessions, we found that MMN and P3a components changed their amplitudes after 2 sessions of the MID task. At the individual level, the training-induced change of mismatch-related negativity was correlated with the amplitude of the feedback-related negativity (FRN) recorded during the MID task. Our results show that the MID task evokes plasticity changes in the auditory system associated with better passive discrimination of incentive cues and with enhanced involuntary attention switching towards these cues.

The defense will be held online. To get the zoom link to this online event please contact Anna Kondrashova ( akondrashova@hse.ru ).

To access the defense materials please click here.