The brain's ability to focus on either accuracy (at the cost of being slow) or focus on speed (at the cost of decreased accuracy) during task performance is poorly understood. The research proposed in this grant will examine the neural correlates of this ability, focusing on the role of the prefrontal cortex. By studying the differences in brain activation using fMRI when participants focus on speed vs accuracy during the same task we will be able to directly compare the differences in brain activation between these different ways of performing in the same task. Connectivity analyses between prefrontal cortex and posterior regions (in particular, the motor system), a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) study, and a study using patients with selective lesions to the prefrontal cortex will function to test further test the role of this brain region in this ability.
This research might be of general relevance to public health in its furthering of our understanding of how the prefrontal cortex, which is implicated in a large number of psychiatric and neurological illnesses, functions and interacts with other brain regions. It might also increase our understanding of how to study and control for differences in speed-accuracy tradeoff in between-group designs (e.g., when comparing patients to healthy controls).
