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SUMMARY:Senne Braem (UGent): "The affective evaluation of cognitive contro
 l"
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20251110T130000Z
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20251110T140000Z
DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260617T152959Z
UID:indico-event-585@indico.giga.uliege.be
DESCRIPTION:We often get the advice to either “use our brain” or “fo
 llow our heart.” This enduring distinction between cognition and emotion
  is deeply embedded in everyday life and has long fascinated philosophers\
 , psychologists\, and neuroscientists. In this talk\, I will present resea
 rch grounded in reinforcement learning frameworks that emphasize shared\, 
 rather than separate\, neural processes of cognition and emotion\, focusin
 g on the affective signatures of cognitive control. Using behavioral\, fMR
 I\, EEG\, and pupillometry measures\, we show how effortful control is oft
 en experienced as aversive (“thinking hurts”)\, yet successfully overc
 oming these demands can be rewarding and reshape how we evaluate cognitive
  effort. In more recent work\, we further tried to disentangle the evaluat
 ion and allocation of cognitive control\, revealing distinct roles for sub
 cortical and cingulo-striatal circuits in encoding control and reward sign
 als. Finally\, I will present work that tries to tap into the dynamic adju
 stments in metacognitive experiences such as effort\, frustration\, and fa
 tigue\, and how they can be understood as important learning signals for r
 ational adaptations in control. Together\, these findings suggest that our
  affective and motivational experiences of control are not mere byproducts
 \, but fundamental components of adaptive cognitive regulation.\n\nBIO: S
 enne Braem is an associate professor at the Department of Experimental Psy
 chology at Ghent University\, Belgium. Senne’s research focuses on the i
 nteractions between cognitive control (or “executive functions”) and d
 ifferent forms of learning\, such as reinforcement learning\, associative 
 learning\, fear conditioning\, or learning via instructions. Together with
  his team (https://users.ugent.be/~sbraem/)\, they study the learning of t
 hese arguably higher-order functions through designing and using different
  behavioral paradigms\, sometimes combined with neuroimaging methods or co
 mputational modelling. Senne’s work has also tried to study the relevanc
 e of these functions for cognitive training and better understanding diffe
 rent clinical conditions\, primarily autism. His research has been funded 
 by the BOF Special Research Funds\, the Research Foundation – Flanders (
 FWO)\, and the European Research Council (ERC).\n\nhttps://indico.giga.uli
 ege.be/event/585/
LOCATION:CRC B-30/0-000 - FLUOR (Big meeting room)
URL:https://indico.giga.uliege.be/event/585/
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