Over the last two decades, a significant discovery in systems neuroscience has been the realization that spontaneous activity is not random "noise". Still, brain regions are correlated, even in the absence of sensory stimuli or motor tasks. Whereas classical neuroscientific models argued that brain functions primarily depend upon stimulus-related processing, the current view is that the cognitive operations of the brain are mainly intrinsic. Recent studies suggest that this intrinsic structure is optimized to switch to a variety of possible states in individuals with high cognitive functioning. However, whether and how this stable structure adapts to novel conditions is unknown. This project addresses this issue by testing how cognitive flexibility influences the intrinsic brain organization and its adaptation to extreme manipulations of the body.
The body, particularly the hand, is the primary means of interaction with the environment. Neurological, psychiatric, and other clinical conditions (e.g., body amputation) can modify the body image and, therefore, how individuals interact with the surroundings. In the course of the development and the experience, the biomechanics of the human body movements generates distributions of highly probable states that are internalized by the brain. A new theoretical framework posits that the spontaneous oscillations of the brain may function as long-term prior of frequent behaviors that constrain the recruitment of task-driven activity.
Through high-density Electroencephalography (Hd-EEG) and virtual reality, this multidisciplinary project addresses how and whether cognitive flexibility influences how the brain reorganizes when there is not a match between prior expectations and incoming input, regarding the body. This study has far-reaching implications not only for neuroscience but also for psychology, psychopathology, and neurology.
