You’d Better Think Twice: Post-Decision Perceptual Confidence

Hilgenstock, Raphael; Weiß, Thomas; Witte, Otto W.

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.05.049

Cited by 52 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Previous studies have consistently shown that fMRI activity in rlPFC tracks explicit confidence estimates (11,(14)(15)(16), and that the microstructure of rlPFC can predict the degree to which an individual's subjective evaluations reflect objective performance (36)(37)(38). One hypothesis, which may reconcile these results with ours, is that rlPFC is not itself involved in computing a probability that a choice is correct, but instead governs the mapping of internal onto explicit confidence estimates.…”

Section: Cc-by-nc-nd 40 International License Not Peer-reviewed) Is supporting

confidence: 78%

“…In rodents, similar approaches have identified orbitofrontal cortex as central to confidence-based behaviours (3,10). In humans, fMRI has identified areas which track explicit confidence estimates, including ventromedial prefrontal cortex (11,12), striatum (13), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (14,15) and rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (11,(14)(15)(16). However, because of the aforementioned conflation of the probability that a choice is correct with the reliability of the evidence upon which a choice is based, the computational role of these neural areas remains unclear.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Distinct encoding of decision confidence in human medial prefrontal cortex

Bang

Fleming

2018

Preprint

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Our confidence in a choice and the reliability of evidence pertaining to that choice appear to be inseparable quantities. However, recent computational frameworks suggest that the brain should encode distinct estimates of these quantities for adaptive behavioural control. Consider a line judge in a tennis match deciding whether a ball is out. When the ball is moving quickly, the sensory signal is unreliable. Nevertheless, if the ball lands far from the line, a decision may be easy and confidence high. Decision confidence should reflect the probability that a choice is correct and must therefore, unlike other estimates of certainty such as evidence reliability, be flexibly conditioned on a choice. Here we devised a psychophysical approach to decouple confidence in a sensory choice from the reliability of the sensory evidence upon which a choice is based. Using human fMRI, we observed that an area in medial prefrontal cortex (perigenual cingulate cortex, pgACC) tracked probability correct, the normative definition of decision confidence, whereas neural areas previously thought to track decision confidence, such as ventral striatum and posterior parietal cortex, instead tracked sensory reliability. We show that pgACC activity does not simply co-vary with objective performance but is also linked to withinsubject and between-subject variation in a subjective sense of decision confidence. Our study is consistent with the recent proposal that the brain separately maintains choice-dependent and choice-independent estimates of certainty, and sheds light on why dysfunctional confidence estimates often emerge following prefrontal lesions and/or degeneration.

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Section: Cc-by-nc-nd 40 International License Not Peer-reviewed) Is supporting

confidence: 78%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distinct encoding of decision confidence in human medial prefrontal cortex

Bang

Fleming

2018

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Inter-alia, these operations could be related to the perceptual analysis of the extrinsic elements inducing grouping and the formation of a visual group that includes the target and other elements based on "similarity of containment" (Wagemans et al, 2012). Prior evidence has shown that perceptual choice and concomitant confidence emerge along a processing stream in a network of secondary sensory cortices and prefrontal areas that are involved in the evaluation and monitoring of task difficulty and sensory certainty (Heekeren et al, 2008;Hilgenstock et al, 2014;Kiani and Shadlen, 2009). Thus, as a consequence the higher perceptual saliency shown by common region cues, the P280 modulation may be reflecting more confident decisions about response selection when participants grouped elements in the common region condition during a second processing stage.…”

Section: Integrating Findings and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A temporo-spatial analysis of the neural correlates of extrinsic perceptual grouping in vision

et al. 2015

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“…Although the brain structures and functions underlying any confidence judgment need not necessarily differ, this paradigm allows us to assess particular brain structures related to a confidence judgment that is implicit, prospective, and adaptive with respect to the primary task goal (i.e., maximizing performance by avoiding errors). Previous research has attributed activity in posterior parietal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), and both anterior and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) to explicit, post-decisional, retrospective (not behaviorally adaptive) confidence judgments (Fleming, Huijgen, & Dolan, 2012; Hilgenstock, Weiss, & Witte, 2014; Rounis, Maniscalco, Rothwell, Passingham, & Lau, 2010; Yokoyama et al, 2010). Thus, the present research is positioned to complement those findings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural networks underlying the metacognitive uncertainty response

Paul

Smith

Valentin

et al. 2015

Cortex

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Humans monitor states of uncertainty that can guide decision-making. These uncertain states are evident behaviorally when humans decline to make a categorization response. Such behavioral uncertainty responses have also defined the search for metacognition in animals. While a plethora of neuroimaging studies have focused on uncertainty, the brain systems supporting a volitional strategy shift under uncertainty have not been distinguished from those observed in making introspective post-hoc reports of categorization uncertainty. Using rapid event-related fMRI, we demonstrate that the neural activity patterns elicited by humans’ uncertainty responses are qualitatively different from those recruited by associative processes during categorization. Participants performed a one-dimensional perceptual-categorization task in which an uncertainty-response option let them decline to make a categorization response. Uncertainty responding activated a distributed network including prefrontal cortical (PFC), anterior and posterior cingulate cortex (ACC, PCC), anterior insula, and posterior parietal areas; importantly, these regions were distinct from those whose activity was modulated by task difficulty. Generally, our results can be characterized as a large-scale cognitive control network including recently evolved brain regions such as the anterior dorsolateral and medial PFC. A metacognitive theory would view the uncertainty response as a deliberate behavioral adjustment rather than just a learned middle category response, and predicts this pattern of results. These neuroimaging results bolster previous behavioral findings, which suggested that different cognitive processes underlie responses due to associative learning versus the declaration of uncertainty. We conclude that the uncertainty response represents an elemental behavioral index of metacognition.

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You’d Better Think Twice: Post-Decision Perceptual Confidence

Cited by 52 publications

References 49 publications

Distinct encoding of decision confidence in human medial prefrontal cortex

Distinct encoding of decision confidence in human medial prefrontal cortex

A temporo-spatial analysis of the neural correlates of extrinsic perceptual grouping in vision

Neural networks underlying the metacognitive uncertainty response

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