Project 1: Cognition and drug use behaviour in the general population
As part of this project, we aim to investigate whether individual differences in cognitive function are related to licit and illicit drug use in the general population. Specifically, we seek to assess if cognitive factors – related to memory, learning, and executive function – are associated with particular patterns of drug use, including occasional, social and binge intake behaviours. We additionally hope to determine if these cognitive factors can predict changes in drug use over time and if feedback about cognition and/or intake precipitates reduced drug-taking behaviour.
Project 2: Error related processes and adaptive behaviour change
The ability to detect an error in performance is critical to ongoing and future goal-directed behaviour. Diminished awareness of performance errors has been associated with a loss of insight and poor functional recovery in several clinical disorders (e.g., attention- deficit/hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, addiction). Despite the clear imperative to understand and remediate such deficits, error awareness and its instantiation in corrective behaviour remains to be fully elucidated. Specifically, theories on the neural correlates of error awareness and the role of dopamine in error awareness are somewhat incomplete. Further, it is unknown what conditions elicit error awareness and what role – if any – error awareness affords in adaptive behaviour. This project aims to extend work on error awareness by investigating performance monitoring and learning using behavioural paradigms in healthy and clinical cohorts and to clarify the neural mechanisms underlying error awareness using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The current findings have the potential to inform a greater understanding of performance monitoring in a range of clinical conditions that are marked by impaired error awareness.