Cognitive Flexibility
How we should act depends on the current situation. For example, when our cellphone rings, we usually answer it. However, if our cellphone rings while we are in a meeting, we will quickly mute. In both situations the sensory input is the same (our cellphone ringing) but how we respond changes.
Such cognitive flexibility is key to intelligent behavior, as it allows us to act appropriately in any given situation. Remarkably, we can change our behavior quickly -- our response to our cellphone ringing changes in the few seconds it takes to walk into a meeting room. Unfortunately, cognitive flexibility is disrupted by many mental disorders, including obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder.
Our research aims to understand the neural mechanisms that support cognitive flexibility. By gaining a deeper, mechanistic understanding of cognitive flexibility, we hope to lay the groundwork for new treatments for these disorders.
Related Publications
Differences in the expression of cortex-wide neural
dynamics are related to behavioral phenotype
MacDowell CJ, Briones BA, Lenzi MJ, Gustison ML, Buschman TJ
Current Biology. March 25, 2024. 34: 1333–1340,
Building compositional tasks with shared neural subspaces
Tafazoli S, Bouchacourt FM, Ardalan A, Markov NT, Uchimura M, Mattar MG, Daw ND, Buschman TJ
Available on bioRxiv.
Learning attentional templates for value-based decision-making
Jahn CI, Markov NT, Morea B, Daw ND, Ebitz RB, Buschman TJ
Cell. March 14, 2024. 187 (6): 1476-1489.
The neural basis of swap errors in working memory
Alleman M, Panichello MF, Buschman TJ, Johnston WJ
Available on bioRxiv.
Multiplexed Subspaces Route Neural Activity Across Brain-wide Networks
MacDowell CJ, Libby A, Jahn CI, Tafazoli S, Buschman TJ
Available on bioRxiv.
Fast rule switching and slow rule updating in a perceptual categorization task
Bouchacourt F*, Tafazoli S*, Mattar MG, Buschman TJ#, Daw ND#
eLife. 2022.
A Goldilocks theory of cognitive control: Balancing precision and efficiency with low-dimensional control states
Camden J. MacDowell, Sina Tafazoli, Timothy J. Buschman
Curr. Opin. Neurobio. 2022. 76.
Shared mechanisms underlie the control of working memory and attention
Panichello MF and Buschman TJ
Nature, Mar. 31, 2021.
Low-Dimensional Spatio-Temporal Dynamics Underlie Cortex-Wide Neural Activity
MacDowell CJ and Buschman TJ
Current Biology. May 28, 2020. 30 (14): 2665-2680.
Cortical Information Flow during Flexible Sensorimotor Decisions
Siegel M, Buschman TJ and Miller EK
Science, 2015. 348 (6241): 1352-1355.
Goal-direction and top-down control
Buschman TJ and Miller EK
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 2014. 369 (1655): 20130471.
Synchronous oscillatory neural ensembles for rules in the prefrontal cortex
Buschman TJ, Denovellis E, Diogo C, Bullock D, Miller EK
Neuron, 2012; 76 (4): 838-846.