Dezso Nemeth
Research project
Old habits die hard: Towards a comprehensive model of rewiring automatic behaviors
Project summary
Habits are automatic, recurring, and often unconscious behaviors. They are written into the fabric of our lives allowing us to perform complex routines automatically, while our thoughts, attention, and deliberate actions are directed to other tasks. Although empirical evidence is accumulating on brain plasticity and neurocognition of automatic behaviors, it has not been accompanied by a breakthrough in theory development. Here I set out to gain mechanistic insight into habit formation and change (called rewiring). The aim of my Iméra Fellowship project is to work on a book-length manuscript that contextualizes and fully specifies a neurocognitive model of rewiring from the formation via consolidation to updating our memory representation underlying automatic behaviors and habits.
