Lesson №2. What our habits are?

Module #1 (20 min):

Introduction:

Welcome everybody, today we are going to tackle one of the hot spots of Modern Behaviorall

Neuroscience, namely the behavioral flexibility and malfunctions related to that. If it sounds

complicated, do not worry. It would be clear by the end of the lesson.

Habit formation:

We are all familiar with what the habits are? Activity: ask the students to name different habits.

For instance, we are all familiar with habits like: riding a bike or typing on a keyboard. Let’s consider a

simple process of a habit formation. Imagine that you came to a new building, entered the elevator and

want to come to the 5th floor where your friends have a party. What are your actions? You find the

correct button, press it and the lift brings you to your pals. From the scientific point of view a lot of

things happened, briefly it can be described as follows:

1) You observed the button board with your eyes

2) The signal from your eyes passed to the visual cortex, where it was classified and the objects

(different buttons) were recognized

3) Your brain used this information to build a programme that will allow you to press the button

and this programme was sent to the motor areas of the brain

4) At the motor areas the specific electrical signals were generated and these signals innervated

the specific muscles, which ultimately lead to the pressing of the button

Now, let’s imagine you get well with the guys who organized the party and visit them on the regular

basis. What will happen when you enter the elevator on the 10th time? The answer may seem to be

fairly blatant- you press the button and go to your friends. It sounds absolutely similar as it was during

your first visit, doesn’t it? However, now your brain did work differently. Well, you may ask me why? I

did pretty much the same motoric movements. Correct, but the program that you brain generated in

order to execute these movements is different from the one that was generated at the first time. In

other words, your brain now solved the same issue, but in a different manner. In the terms of our list,

the point “3” is different. Now, let’s introduce a few scientific definitions. When you just learn a certain

thing, like pressing a correct button at an elevator, your actions are so-called “goal-directed”. It is

actually quite logical, isn’t it? You have a goal and you direct your actions to reach it. When you learned

the action and performed it many times, in our case you have been pressing the same button at the

same elevator for many times, your actions become “habitual”. It is also logical. Habitual is something

we know very well. Thus, scientifically speaking when you learn a certain novel action and subsequently

execute it many times, your actions experience the shift from the goal-directed to habitual mode.

The similar situation happens, when you learn how to ride a bike, type on a keyboard, play computer

games, e.t.c.

Now let’s consider the situation when you have learned something, for instance, how to type on a

keyboard, but then the letters on the keyboard have been replaced. As an example you can consider

German keyboard, where the letters from English alphabet are the same, but the positions of ‘y’ and ‘z’

are exchanged. Now if you really used to type on English keyboard, you for some time would have

problems with the German one. Why is that? This is because after a long experience of typing, your

motoric actions (pressing the correct buttons) are driven by “habitual” program. One of the peculiarities

of “habitual” program is the rigidity, meaning that once it is formed, it is stable and you have to apply

extra efforts to change it. However, through this rigidity you become faster. Do you remember how long

it took for you to type at your first time and now? The opposite is correct for “goal-directed” mode it is

much more pliable, but slower compare to “habitual”.

In summary to this Module

Type of action control

Application field Mobility Speed Examples

Goal-directed Learning new skills Flexible Slow

In principle in all cases when you learn something

new, your actions are on the goal-directed regime Learning how to

ride a vehicle, walk, type, write,

e.t.c

Habitual Execution of well-

known actions Rigid Fast

If the same action is performed for long time in the same manner,

then it is driven via habitual mode. Ride a vehicle,

walk, type, write, but after the

training

Table№1

Comparison between goal-directed and habitual action controls.

Red colour is used to emphasize the principal different in the examples

Here it is important to mention, that not only motor skills are automatized in the described manner. The

same principle is applied to cognitive behaviors in a very broad scale: from the tasks as rolling a cigar to

proving geometry theorems (Ashby, Turner and Horvitz, 2010)

Well, every day we experience the shifting between these two paradigms. Of course, one should not

think of them as black and white, since the shifting from one paradigm to another is a continuous

process, therefore, at each stage it is correctly to say that the action is dominated by habitual/goal-

directed action control, meaning that the minor contribution of the second one is also there (see Figure

1.1)

Figure №1.1 Shifting between goal-directed and habitual action control

Picture illustrates the gradual process of the shifting between goal-directed and habitual behavior on the

example of riding a bicycle.

Module #2: Practical example (10 minutes):

Now let’s apply the novel knowledge.

We will watch two video fragments from movies and your task would be to report what type of

behaviour (habitual or goal-directed) you have observed?

Example №1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAf3Mf2QPjA

[1:06-1:46]; Age restriction: PG-13, according to https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1074638/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Question to the audience: What type of behaviour it was: habitual or goal-directed?

Correct answer: Quite poor performance, always manually corrected, not fast => goal-directed

Example №2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqPAH5kU6Cc

[1:35-2:25] ; Age restriction: PG-13, according to https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1386697/

Question to the audience: What type of behaviour it was: habitual or goal-directed?

Correct answer: Excellent performance, done automatically, very fast => habitual

Example №3:

Now let’s have a small activity: now you will all perform an action that would require you to manually

shift one of your habitual actions to goal-directed mode.

Stroop test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLAp3PMDIQY ; put the video without music

Interaction with the audience: How far could you get? What did you feel?

The short explanation of this test is the following: as a result of habitual reading the brain automatically

understands the meaning of the words, but, at the same time, recognizing and naming the colours is not

an “automatic” process. Therefore, when we are given a task: ”Name the font colour of a printed word,

but not the word meaning”, we have to force our brain not to use an easy and fast way – to tell the

meaning, but, instead of that, to do the task – name the font colour (Monahan, 2001)

This test, in a sense, measures what we call “will power”. But remember, that this is only one test,

provided not under the experimental conditions, with a lot of disturbances e.t.c. Therefore, even if you

have failed at the beginning do not be too upset.

Module №23 (25 minutes):

Ok, now we know what “goal-directed” and “habitual” action controls are, as well as what does

“shifting between goal-directed and habitual behaviour” mean. Why do we need these terms? Well, as

it has been pointed before, these modes of an action control are different not just with respect to the

resulted behaviour, but also in terms of the brain activity. Let’s address the respective brain regions.

We know that the ultimate goal is to activate motor cortex (show the Figure), resulting in the execution

of the motor action, but the program to do this is formed at the different brain regions.

We will focus on the parts of a human brain, named “striatum”, “thalamus” (parts of the basal ganglia)

“prefrontal cortex” and “motor cortex” (see lecture one).

Question to the audience: Can you recall what the main functions of the frontal cortex, striatum and

thalamus are?

Correct answers:

We discussed at the first lecture that thalamus can be thought as a “hub”, relaying the information

between the cortex and subcortical area (Gazzaniga et al., 2014).

Striatum is viewed as a coordination center, responsible for mediating the crucial aspects of cognition,

such as: basic motor planning, motivation, decision making e.t.c (Yager et. al, 2015).

We also discussed that the prefrontal cortex is the region where the plans and decisions are created

(Yang and Raine, 2009)

Motor cortex is responsible for the execution of the movements.

In a cartoon way, you may think about it in the following way. You want to send a letter to Santa, in

order to receive a Christmas gift: prefrontal cortex is you, generating an idea and a plan, striatum is

your parents, helping you to put your ideas into the correct written form, seal the letter and bring it to a

post office, thalamus is the postman, who delivers your letter to Santa, and motor cortex is Santa, who

makes your dreams come true [ Joke: or motor cortex is a credit card of your parents]

Now let’s put these terms together to build an outline of how the actions in both : goal-directed and

habitual action control are triggered. Let’s use our bicycle example (see Figure 1.1) When we do not

know, how to ride it, we build a plan in our mind, namely: how to pedal, to stop, to control the balance.

This plan is generated in our prefrontal cortex, than is sent to associative striatum, where it is adjusted,

and subsequently via thalamus, that acts as a delivery man, to the motor cortex (see red arrows of the

Figure №1)

Figure №1 Goal-directed action control

Schematic representation of the connectivity between cortical and striatal regions

regarding goal-directed action control.

Red arrows denote dominating pathways responsible for the signal transduction.

After the first trial, you may, for instance, fall down or loose the balance, this drives you to adjust your

previous plan and try again. This adjustment is performed by associative striatum. Well, you try again

and again, and again and gradually become better. At this point your brain understands: ”Cool, I do not

need to correct and adjust this plan anymore and, therefore, can automatize that, to perform faster. The

automatization also requires the certain coordination of previously learned actions, therefore, it also

takes place in striatum, but in the different part, named “motor striatum”.

Figure №2 Habitual action control

Schematic representation of the connectivity between cortical and striatal regions

regarding goal-directed action control.

Red arrows denote dominating pathways responsible for the signal transduction.

Now your plan is sent from prefrontal cortex to motor striatum and subsequently via thalamus to motor

cortex. More and more your train, the faster your perform and less think about what exactly you do, this

is because the adjustment and elaboration of the action, that was previously done in associative

striatum is substituted by the automatization, performed by motor striatum (see Figure №2)

Is this the end of the story? According to the classical view –yes, however, the state of the art research

tells us – not really. Some actions you may train to such degree, that your brain understands :”Well, this

is so precise, thus, I will not need to adjust these actions in the future anymore and, therefore, can send

the program directly from prefrontal cortex to motor areas, not using the path through the basal

ganglia. This makes the actions extremely fast.

Figure №3 Concept of Extra-Habitual action control

Schematic representation of the connectivity between cortical and striatal regions

regarding goal-directed action control.

Red arrows denote dominating pathways responsible for the signal transduction.

However, one should keep in mind, that the price also increases. Initially when you adjust your actions

via associative striatum, you were quite flexible, meaning that if the task is changed, than you just briefly

adapt to it. When you start the automatization, via motor striatum, changing of the program becomes

more difficult and, finally, if the program was automatized to a degree that it has been sending directly

between the prefrontal cortex and motor cortex (see Figure №3), than it would be extremely difficult to

brake this habit.

At the next lesson we will discuss maladies associated with the disturbances in the behavioral flexibility

of shifting between goal-directed and habitual action control, such as: obsessive-compulsive disorder

and addiction. We will also touch some other regions of the basal ganglia related to the addiction

disorders, like: smoking, drug addiction, gambling e.t.c, as well as the changings in the process of the

signal transduction in drug addicts.

Evaluation assessment test (5 min):

Today we have learned what goal-directed and habitual action controls are, how the behavioral shift

between these two paradigms happens, what are the distinctive features of goal-directed (flexible and

slow) and habitual (rigid and fast) behavior. What regions of the cortex and basal ganglia are involved in

the above described modes of action and how the signal transduction differs between these two

behavioral paradigms.

New terms learned:

Goal-directed behavior

Habitual behavior

Shift from the goal-directed to habitual mode

Associative striatum

Motor striatum

Reference list:

Main materials are taken from :

Ashby F.G., Turner B.O. and Horvitz J.C. (2010). “Cortical and basal ganglia contributions to habit learning and

automaticity”. Trends Cogn Sc. 14(5): 208–215. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2010.02.001.

Additional facts:

Gazzaniga; Ivry; Mangun, Michael, S.; Richard B.; George R. (2014). Cognitive Neuroscience - The Biology of The

Mind. New York: W.W. Norton. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-393-91348-4.

Monahan, J.S (2001). "Coloring single Stroop elements: Reducing automaticity or slowing color processing". Journal

of General Psychology. 128 (1): 98–112.

Yager LM, Garcia AF, Wunsch AM, Ferguson SM ( 2015). "The ins and outs of the striatum: Role in drug

addiction". Neuroscience. 301: 529–541. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2015.06.033.

Yang Y, Raine A (2009). "Prefrontal structural and functional brain imaging findings in antisocial, violent, and

psychopathic individuals: a meta-analysis". Psychiatry Research. 174 (2): 81-8. doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2009.03.012.