PhD defence
The interaction between Arousal and Cognitive Control
- J.J. Tromp
- Date
- Wednesday 9 April 2025
- Time
- Location
-
Academy Building
Rapenburg 73
2311 GJ Leiden
Summary
How is it that sometimes you remain effortlessly focused on a textbook, while you notice every little sound or movement at other times? The ability to transform a goal—for example, reading a book—into goal-directed behavior is cognitive control. This trait makes our behavior extraordinarily flexible, but it is also notorious for its variability. Consider, for example, diet resolutions, where the plan often doesn’t hold up in practice.
In this study, we sought an explanation for the variation in cognitive control in an important but underexplored region of the brain: the brainstem. In this region, there are neurons responsible for regulating arousal—in short, how alert and active you feel. During deep sleep, your arousal is minimal, whereas just before a bungee jump it can spike explosively. Recent studies show that arousal not only changes in extreme situations but also undergoes continuous subtle fluctuations that influence how the brain functions.
In our studies, we investigated whether these subtle fluctuations in arousal explain why our capacity for cognitive control varies. Our results suggest that fluctuations in arousal can indeed account for part of the variation, but the interplay between arousal and cognitive control is particularly complex. Moreover, it turns out that this variation is not necessarily a bad thing; in some situations, it can offer adaptive advantages. Consider, for example, the doctor who should not focus too much on his textbook when he also needs to be able to quickly respond to an emergency call. With these new insights, this research contributes to our understanding of the functioning and variability of cognitive control.
Supervisor(s)
- Prof.dr. S.T. Nieuwenhuis
- dr.ir. R.E. de Kleijn
PhD dissertations
Approximately one week after the defence, PhD dissertations by Leiden PhD students are available digitally through the Leiden Repository, that offers free access to these PhD dissertations. Please note that in some cases a dissertation may be under embargo temporarily and access to its full-text version will only be granted later.
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