# Subjective Cognitive Effort Indexes Sub-Criticality in the Brain

> **NIH NIH K99** · BROWN UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $105,614

## Abstract

Project Summary / Abstract
Cognitive effort is subjectively costly. It can cause people to discount valuable goals and avoid thoughtful
planning and careful deliberation. Effort avoidance can thus be problematic, especially in disorders like
depression and schizophrenia where excessive cost sensitivity undermines cognitive motivation. To address
cost sensitivity, we first need to understand what the brain treats as costly. Traditional indices, like lateral frontal
fMRI signals, and parietal alpha desynchronization in EEG data, track cognitive load to a point, but often plateau
or decline, even when subjective effort continues to rise. This project will examine a promising candidate metric
of cognitive effort: criticality suppression. Criticality characterizes cortical dynamics at rest, and prior studies have
shown that brains becomes increasingly sub-critical under the very conditions known to increase subjective
effort: increasing working memory load, fatigue, sleep deprivation, novelty, and cognitive aging. In Aim 1,
criticality suppression will be monitored with EEG, and compared to behavioral economic measures of subjective
effort costs both across individuals (capturing individual differences in cost sensitivity) and within individuals
(capturing cost sensitivity across load levels). In Aim 2, TMS will be used to test whether modulating criticality
(artificially) impacts sensitivity to effort costs, apart from cognitive demands. Finally, in Aim 3, concurrent TMS-
EEG will be used to investigate the mechanisms regulating criticality. In particular, Aim 3 will test the hypothesis
that the cortical excitatory-inhibitory balance regulates how closely to a critical state the brain operates, and
thereby how sensitive people are to effort costs. Aims 1 and 2 will thus provide the applicant with essential
training in EEG and TMS methodologies while testing a novel hypothesis linking criticality to subjective cognitive
effort. Subsequently, in the applicant’s independent phase, Aim 3 will combine and apply these methodologies
to test hypothesized mechanisms which may underlie cognitive effort, working memory, and cognitive motivation.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10455114
- **Project number:** 5K99MH125021-02
- **Recipient organization:** BROWN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** John Andrew Westbrook
- **Activity code:** K99 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $105,614
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-09-01 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10455114

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10455114, Subjective Cognitive Effort Indexes Sub-Criticality in the Brain (5K99MH125021-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10455114. Licensed CC0.

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