To hit your goal: towards understanding deficits in response selection

Efficient decision-making about which response to select is important, yet impaired in several brain disorders. Multiple parallel closed loop circuits through the basal ganglia involving dopaminergic signaling are implicated in response selection. In healthy subjects performing a simple response selection task we will address two questions: 1) Can models of the cortico-basal circuits explain selection behavior? 2) Do connection strengths observed in the model correlate with the level of dopamine, as measured through its metabolic byproduct, lactate, using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) at a 7T scanner? Eventually new insights from this project may lead to the development of new early and non-invasive biomarkers for disease.