Project Overview

The exploration versus exploitation (E&E) decision making trade-off is something we experience every day. Do I return to my favorite restaurant or try something new? Do I watch the same show on Netflix or find a new one? This trade-off between going with what you know, versus trying something new is important to balance to make good decisions. Most of the time we effortlessly balance between exploration and exploitation; however, engaging in extreme amounts of either can be a sign of a more serious problem. Researchers have begun to use tests of exploration vs. exploitation to study brain diseases and changes in brain health, and we recently found an association between the health of the brainstem and biases towards exploitation or exploration.

With support from a personnel award for black scholars I would like to continue this research by studying how decision-making changes throughout Alzheimer’s disease and the role brainstem health plays. The brainstem, located deep in the brain, is one of the first areas affected by Alzheimer’s disease and be difficult to study. We recently utilized a brand-new method that allows us to study the brainstem in very high detail with individuals at high risk of Alzheimer’s disease. In addition to these high-quality brain scans, these individuals completed a test showing if they make exploration or exploitation biased decisions. I would like to analyze this data with the goal of understanding how decision-making changes in Alzheimer’s disease and the role brainstem health plays. I hope this research will contribute to developing new ways of testing for Alzheimer’s disease earlier in life, and to help patients with the disease and their caregivers understand how their ability to make decisions will be impacted.

Principal Investigator

Patrick Hewan , York University