The uncertain brain: A co-ordinate based meta-analysis of the neural signatures supporting uncertainty during different contexts

Morriss, Jayne; Gell, Martin; Reekum, Carien M. van

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.12.013

Cited by 61 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 123 publications

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“…Initial work shows that individuals high in IU, relative to individuals low in IU, display heightened physiological and neural activity to uncertainty across several different domains (for review, see Tanovic, Gee et al, ). The most popular areas of research for examining uncertainty and IU have been in the following contexts: (a) associative threat learning and extinction, (b) threat uncertainty, and (c) decision‐making (for review, see Morriss, Gell, & van Reekum, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What do I do now? Intolerance of uncertainty is associated with discrete patterns of anticipatory physiological responding to different contexts

Morriss

2019

Psychophysiology

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Heightened physiological responses to uncertainty are a common hallmark of anxiety disorders. Many separate studies have examined the relationship between individual differences in intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and physiological responses to uncertainty during different contexts. Despite this, there is a scarcity of research examining the extent to which individual differences in IU are related to shared or discrete patterns of anticipatory physiological responding across different contexts. Anticipatory physiological responses to uncertainty were assessed in three different contexts (associative threat learning and extinction, threat uncertainty, decision‐making) within the same sample (n = 45). During these tasks, behavioral responses (i.e., reaction times, choices), skin conductance, and corrugator supercilli activity were recorded. In addition, self‐reported IU and trait anxiety were measured. IU was related to both skin conductance and corrugator supercilii activity for the associative threat learning and extinction context and decision‐making context. However, trait anxiety was related to corrugator supercilii activity during the threat uncertainty context. Ultimately, this research helps us to further tease apart the role of IU on different aspects of anticipation (i.e., valence and arousal) across contexts, which will be relevant for future IU‐related models of psychopathology.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What do I do now? Intolerance of uncertainty is associated with discrete patterns of anticipatory physiological responding to different contexts

Morriss

2019

Psychophysiology

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“…threat, reward, and error monitoring (for review see Tanovic, Gee & Joorman, 2018). The most popular areas of research for examining the neural correlates of uncertainty and IU have been in the following contexts: (1) associative threat learning, (2) basic threat uncertainty, and (3) decision-making (for review see, Morriss, Gell & van Reekum, 2018).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…What is noticeable from the areas of research outlined above is that they all contain aspects of anticipation (Morriss, Gell, & van Reekum, 2018 (Shihata, McEvoy, Mullan, & Carleton, 2016).…”

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confidence: 99%

What do I do now? Intolerance of uncertainty is associated with discrete patterns of anticipatory physiological responding to different uncertain contexts

Morriss

2019

Preprint

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Heightened physiological responses to uncertainty are a common hallmark of anxiety disorders. Many separate studies have examined the relationship between individual differences in intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and physiological responses to uncertainty during different contexts. Despite this, little is known about the extent to which physiological responses during different uncertain contexts covary within individuals based on IU. Anticipatory physiological responses to uncertainty were assessed in three different contexts (associative threat learning, basic threat uncertainty, decision-making) within the same sample (n = 45). During these tasks, behavioural responses (i.e. reaction times, choices), skin conductance and corrugator supercilli activity were recorded. In addition, self-reported IU and trait anxiety were measured. IU made different contributions to the physiological measures during each task. IU was found to modulate both skin conductance and corrugator supercilii activity for the associative threat learning and decision-making contexts. However, trait anxiety was found to modulate corrugator supercilii activity during the basic threat uncertainty context. Ultimately, this research helps us further tease apart the role of IU in different uncertain contexts, which will be relevant for future IU-related models of psychopathology.

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“…However, real-life decision-making often occurs in opaque environments where outcomes can be sporadic or temporarily inaccessible, so that confidence or uncertainty in estimated action-outcome contingencies must rely on other sources of information (Pouget et al, 2013; Ma and Jazayeri, 2014; Meyniel et al, 2015a). Previous studies on value-based decision-making with explicit outcomes (Platt and Huettel, 2008; Tajima et al, 2016) have revealed multiple neural regions involved in encoding uncertainty or confidence in action-outcome estimations (White et al, 2014; Morriss et al, 2018). However, it is yet to be determined whether the neural dynamics underlying one’s uncertainty or confidence are affected by the sources of available information.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The theory of Bayesian inference has found empirical support in studies demonstrating that probabilistic distributions are taken into account in choice selections (Orban and Wolpert, 2011; Sanders et al, 2016) and they are represented by the activity of neural populations (Ma et al, 2006; Pouget et al, 2013; Rich et al, 2015). Investigations into the neural computations of uncertainty and confidence have revealed a rich network of regions involved (Pouget et al, 2016; Meyniel and Dehaene, 2017; Morriss et al, 2018). In particular, neural regions monitoring conflict and errors, with a prominent role for insular (Seymour et al, 2004; Palminteri et al, 2012; Gu et al, 2015), and dorsal anterior cingulate (ACC) cortices (Behrens et al, 2007; Botvinick, 2007; Rushworth and Behrens, 2008), and areas such as the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) or the amygdala, implicated in the processing of value estimates, in presence of risk (Koechlin and Hyafil, 2007; Sarinopoulos et al, 2010; Peters et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Similar network compositions, but distinct neural dynamics underlying belief updating in environments with and without explicit outcomes

Fiore¹,

Gu²

2019

Preprint

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Beliefs about action-outcomes contingencies are often updated in opaque environments where feedbacks might be inaccessible and agents might need to rely on other information for evidence accumulation. It remains unclear, however, whether and how the neural dynamics subserving confidence and uncertainty during belief updating might be context-dependent. Here, we applied a Bayesian model to estimate uncertainty and confidence in healthy humans (n=28) using two multi-option fMRI tasks, one with and one without feedbacks. We found that across both tasks, uncertainty was computed in the anterior insular, anterior cingulate, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, whereas confidence was encoded in anterior hippocampus, amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex. However, dynamic causal modelling (DCM) revealed a critical divergence between how effective connectivity in these networks was modulated by the available information. Specifically, there was directional influence from the anterior insula to other regions during uncertainty encoding, independent of outcome availability. Conversely, the network computing confidence was driven either by the anterior hippocampus when outcomes were not available, or by the medial prefrontal cortex and amygdala when feedbacks were immediately accessible. These findings indicate that confidence encoding might largely rely on evidence accumulation and therefore dynamically changes as a function of the available sensory information (i.e. symbolic sequences monitored by the hippocampus, and monetary feedbacks computed by amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex). In contrast, uncertainty could be triggered by any information that disputes existing beliefs (i.e. processed in the insula), independent of its content.Significance StatementOur choices are guided by our beliefs about action-outcome contingencies. In environments where only one action leads to a desired outcome, high estimated action-outcome probabilities result in confidence, whereas low probabilities distributed across multiple choices result in uncertainty. These estimations are continuously updated, sometimes based on feedbacks provided by the environment, but sometimes this update takes place in opaque environments where feedbacks are not readily available. Here, we show that uncertainty computations are driven by the anterior insula, independent of feedback availability. Conversely, confidence encoding dynamically adapts to the information available, as we found it was driven either by the anterior hippocampus, when feedback was absent, or by the medial prefrontal cortex and amygdala, otherwise.

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The uncertain brain: A co-ordinate based meta-analysis of the neural signatures supporting uncertainty during different contexts

Cited by 61 publications

References 123 publications

What do I do now? Intolerance of uncertainty is associated with discrete patterns of anticipatory physiological responding to different contexts

What do I do now? Intolerance of uncertainty is associated with discrete patterns of anticipatory physiological responding to different contexts

What do I do now? Intolerance of uncertainty is associated with discrete patterns of anticipatory physiological responding to different uncertain contexts

Similar network compositions, but distinct neural dynamics underlying belief updating in environments with and without explicit outcomes

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