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Abstract

Cognitive flexibility is characterized by the ability to adapt cognition and behavior to an ever-changing environment. While much is known about the importance of cognitive flexibility and disorders implicated with its dysfunction, its underlying mechanisms remain vastly unrevealed. The goal of this thesis is to uncover a part of the neural and behavioral mechanisms involved in the correct functioning of cognitive flexibility in humans. This will be achieved using a novel multidimensional rule-switching learning paradigm to analyze behavioral mechanisms and simultaneously recorded magnetoencephalographic data. Further, this thesis will aim to investigate the relationship between selective attention markers and efficient learning as well as validate neural and behavioral results by demonstrating correlations with externally validated neuropsychological assessments.