Behavioral and neural investigations of value-directed strategic processing

To effectively and efficiently process the vast amount of information we experience every day, we often selectively attend to information of higher value or importance and inhibit less valuable information, referred to as value-directed strategic processing in this dissertation. In daily life, we often ascribe value to information based on perceptual or conceptual features, but few, if any, studies have directly examined how such features affect value-directed strategic processing. Additionally, although there is emerging work on the structural and functional bases of value-directed strategic processing, no studies have examined the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms which could provide insights into how value-directed strategic processing neurally unfolds. This dissertation investigates the behavioral and neural effects of perceptually and conceptually defined value on value-directed strategic processing in cognitively normal younger and older adults, and older adults with mild cognitive impairment. Chapter 1 reviews historical perspectives and paradigms related to selective attention and behavioral and neuroimaging literature related to value-directed strategic processing. Chapter 2 explores the feasibility of using perceptually defined value for prompting value-directed strategic processing, and whether event-related spectral perturbations (ERSPs) can capture the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms of value-directed strategic processing. Chapter 3 examines whether behavioral and ERSP measures linked to value-directed strategic processing are affected by normal cognitive aging. Chapter 4 investigates whether neurological disorder, specifically mild cognitive impairment, results in behavioral and ERSP alterations related to value-directed strategic processing. Chapter 5 assesses whether defining value based on perceptual versus conceptual features has differential behavioral effects on value-directed strategic processing.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Neuroscience

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2020

Author dc:creator

• Nguyen, Lydia Thi

Contributors dc:contributor

• Mudar, Raksha A
• Husain, Fatima
• Llano, Daniel A
• Sadaghiani, Sepideh

• value-directed strategic processing
• attention
• inhibition
• aging
• older adults
• mild cognitive impairment

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2020 Lydia Nguyen

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/108582

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/108582