Neural encoding and integration of control-relevant representations

Determine how neural activity in brain regions implicated in cognitive control represents goals, task rules, conflict, costs, benefits, options, actions, and feedback, and characterize how perceptual, affective, motivational, motor, and control representations are neurally integrated during cognitive control.

Background

In discussing neural and behavioral tensions, the paper highlights that many computational models can generate control behavior only by assuming that relevant information (e.g., goals and rules) is already encoded somewhere in the system. This creates a gap between algorithmic accounts of control and the neural implementation of control-relevant representations.

The authors note ongoing efforts to explain how such representations are neurally encoded and integrated, but emphasize that the precise neural codes and the integration of perceptual, affective, motivational, motor, and control signals remain unspecified, marking a key unresolved issue in linking psychological constructs to neurobiological mechanisms.