scholarly journals Distinct encoding of decision confidence in human medial prefrontal cortex

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Bang ◽  
Stephen M. Fleming
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Decision Confidence ◽  
Expected Performance ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Sensory Evidence ◽  
The Brain

AbstractOur confidence in a choice and the evidence pertaining to a choice appear to be inseparable. An emerging computational consensus is, however, that the brain should maintain separate estimates of these quantities for adaptive behavioural control. Here we devised a psychophysical task to decouple confidence in a perceptual decision from both the reliability of sensory evidence and the relation of such evidence with respect to a choice boundary. Using human fMRI, we found that an area in medial prefrontal cortex (perigenual anterior cingulate cortex, pgACC) tracked expected performance, an aggregate signature of decision confidence, whereas neural areas previously proposed to encode decision confidence instead tracked sensory reliability (posterior parietal cortex and ventral striatum) or boundary distance (pre-supplementary motor area). Supporting that information encoded by pgACC is central to a subjective sense of decision confidence, we show that pgACC activity does not simply co-vary with expected performance but is also linked to within-subject and between-subject variation in explicit confidence estimates. Our study is consistent with the proposal that the brain maintains choice-dependent and choice-independent estimates of certainty, and sheds light on why dysfunctional confidence often emerges following prefrontal lesions and/or degeneration.Significance StatementRecent computational models propose that our sense of confidence in a choice reflects an estimate of the probability that the choice is correct. However, it has proven difficult to experimentally separate decision confidence from its component parts, such as our certainty about perceptual evidence or choice requirements. Here we devised a task to dissociate these quantities and isolate a distinct encoding of decision confidence in the medial prefrontal cortex of the human brain. We show that activity in this area not only tracks expected performance on a task but is also related to both within-subject and between-subject variation in a subjective sense of confidence. Our study illuminates why dysfunctional confidence often emerges following damage to prefrontal cortex.

scholarly journals Distinct encoding of decision confidence in human medial prefrontal cortex

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (23) ◽  
pp. 6082-6087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Bang ◽  
Stephen M. Fleming
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Behavioral Control ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Decision Confidence ◽  
Expected Performance ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Sensory Evidence ◽  
The Brain

Our confidence in a choice and the evidence pertaining to a choice appear to be inseparable. However, an emerging computational consensus holds that the brain should maintain separate estimates of these quantities for adaptive behavioral control. We have devised a psychophysical task to decouple confidence in a perceptual decision from both the reliability of sensory evidence and the relation of such evidence with respect to a choice boundary. Using human fMRI, we found that an area in the medial prefrontal cortex, the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC), tracked expected performance, an aggregate signature of decision confidence, whereas neural areas previously proposed to encode decision confidence instead tracked sensory reliability (posterior parietal cortex and ventral striatum) or boundary distance (presupplementary motor area). Supporting that information encoded by pgACC is central to a subjective sense of decision confidence, we show that pgACC activity does not simply covary with expected performance, but is also linked to within-subject and between-subject variation in explicit confidence estimates. Our study is consistent with the proposal that the brain maintains choice-dependent and choice-independent estimates of certainty, and sheds light on why dysfunctional confidence often emerges following prefrontal lesions and/or degeneration.

Experience-Dependent Neural Integration of Taste and Smell in the Human Brain

2004 ◽  
Vol 92 (3) ◽  
pp. 1892-1903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana M. Small ◽  
Joel Voss ◽  
Y. Erica Mak ◽  
Katharine B. Simmons ◽  
Todd Parrish ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Brain Response ◽  
Liquid Form ◽  
Flavor Perception ◽  
Odor Pair ◽  
Frontal Operculum ◽  
Posterior Parietal

Flavor perception arises from the central integration of peripherally distinct sensory inputs (taste, smell, texture, temperature, sight, and even sound of foods). The results from psychophysical and neuroimaging studies in humans are converging with electrophysiological findings in animals and a picture of the neural correlates of flavor processing is beginning to emerge. Here we used event-related fMRI to evaluate brain response during perception of flavors (i.e., taste/odor liquid mixtures not differing in temperature or texture) compared with the sum of the independent presentation of their constituents (taste and/or odor). All stimuli were presented in liquid form so that olfactory stimulation was by the retronasal route. Mode of olfactory delivery is important because neural suppression has been observed in chemosensory regions during congruent taste–odor pairs when the odors are delivered by the orthonasal route and require subjects to sniff. There were 2 flavors. One contained a familiar/congruent taste–odor pair (vanilla/sweet) and the other an unfamiliar/incongruent taste–odor pair (vanilla/salty). Three unimodal stimuli, including 2 tastes (sweet and salty) and one odor (vanilla), as well as a tasteless/odorless liquid (baseline) were presented. Superadditive responses during the perception of the congruent flavor compared with the sum of its constituents were observed in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), dorsal insula, anterior ventral insula extending into the caudal orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), frontal operculum, ventral lateral prefrontal cortex, and posterior parietal cortex. These regions were not present in a similar analysis of the incongruent flavor compared with the sum of its constituents. All of these regions except the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex were also isolated in a direct contrast of congruent − incongruent. Additionally, the anterior cingulate, posterior parietal cortex, frontal operculum, and ventral insula/caudal OFC were also more active in vanilla + salty minus incongruent, suggesting that delivery of an unfamiliar taste–odor combination may lead to suppressed neural responses. Taken together with previous findings in the literature, these results suggest that the insula, OFC, and ACC are key components of the network underlying flavor perception and that taste–smell integration within these and other regions is dependent on 1) mode of olfactory delivery and 2) previous experience with taste/smell combinations.

scholarly journals Neuroanatomical Substrates for Risk Behavior

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ifat Levy
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Risk Behavior ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Structural Mri ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Posterior Parietal

Individuals vary substantially in their tendency to take risks. In the past two decades, a large number of neuroimaging studies in humans have explored the neural mechanisms of several cognitive processes that contribute to risk taking. In this article, I focus on functional and structural MRI studies that investigated uncertainty processing, one of the main features of risk behavior. Using decision-making and learning paradigms, these studies implicated a network of brain areas, including posterior parietal cortex, anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, in various aspects of uncertainty processing. Individual differences in behavior under uncertainty are reflected in the function and structure of some of these areas and are integrated into value representations in ventromedial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum, reinforcing the potential contribution of all of these brain structures to individual tendencies to take risks.

Human Cerebellum Plays an Important Role in Memory-Timed Finger Movement: An fMRI Study

2000 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. 1079-1087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryuta Kawashima ◽  
Jiro Okuda ◽  
Atsushi Umetsu ◽  
Motoaki Sugiura ◽  
Kentaro Inoue ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Anterior Lobe ◽  
Motor Area ◽  
Finger Movement ◽  
Primary Motor Area ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
The Brain

The purpose of this study was to determine, by using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the areas of the brain activated during a memory-timed finger movement task and compare these with those activated during a visually cued movement task. Because it is likely that subjects engage in subvocalization associated with chronometric counting to achieve accurate timing during memory-timed movements, the authors sought to determine the areas of the brain activated during a silent articulation task in which the subjects were instructed to reproduce the same timing as for the memory-timed movement task without any lip movements or vocalization. The memory-timed finger movement task induced activation of the anterior lobe of the cerebellum (lobules IV and V) bilaterally, the contralateral primary motor area, the supplementary motor area (SMA), the premotor area (PMA), the prefrontal cortex, and the posterior parietal cortex bilaterally, compared with the resting condition. The same areas in the SMA and left prefrontal cortex were activated during the silent articulation task compared with the resting condition. The anterior lobe of the cerebellum on both sides was also activated during the silent articulation task compared with the resting condition, but these activations did not reach statistical significance ( P < 0.05 corrected). In addition, the anterior cerebellum on both sides showed significant activation during the memory-timed movement task when compared with the visually cued finger movement task. The visually cued finger movement task specifically activated the ipsilateral PMA and the intraparietal cortex bilaterally. The results indicate that the anterior lobe of the cerebellum of both sides, the SMA, and the left prefrontal cortex were probably involved in the generation of accurate timing, functioning as a clock within the CNS, and that the dorsal visual pathway may be involved in the generation of visually cued movements.

scholarly journals Attentional bias to threat and gray mater volume morphology in high anxious individuals

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua M. Carlson ◽  
Lin Fang
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Bias ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Gray Matter Volume ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Brain Morphology ◽  
Matter Volume ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
The Right

AbstractIn a sample of highly anxious individuals, the relationship between gray matter volume brain morphology and attentional bias to threat was assessed. Participants performed a dot-probe task of attentional bias to threat and gray matter volume was acquired from whole brain structural T1-weighted MRI scans. The results replicate previous findings in unselected samples that elevated attentional bias to threat is linked to greater gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, middle frontal gyrus, and striatum. In addition, we provide novel evidence that elevated attentional bias to threat is associated with greater gray matter volume in the right posterior parietal cortex, cerebellum, and other distributed regions. Lastly, exploratory analyses provide initial evidence that distinct sub-regions of the right posterior parietal cortex may contribute to attentional bias in a sex-specific manner. Our results illuminate how differences in gray matter volume morphology relate to attentional bias to threat in anxious individuals. This knowledge could inform neurocognitive models of anxiety-related attentional bias to threat and targets of neuroplasticity in anxiety interventions such as attention bias modification.

Audiovisual stimulus-driven contributions to spatial orienting in ecologically valid situations: An fMRI study

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Davide Nardo ◽  
Valerio Santangelo ◽  
Emiliano Macaluso
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Spatial Relationship ◽  
Visual Saliency ◽  
Occipital Cortex ◽  
Audiovisual Stimulus ◽  
Spatial Orienting ◽  
Posterior Parietal

Mechanisms of audiovisual attention have been extensively investigated, yet little is known about their functioning in ecologically-valid situations. Here, we investigated brain activity associated with audiovisual stimulus-driven attention using naturalistic stimuli. We created 120 short videos (2.5 s) showing scenes of everyday life. Each video included a visual event comprising a lateralized (left/right) increase in visual saliency (e.g., an actor moving an object), plus a co-occurring sound either on the same or the opposite side of space. Subjects viewed the videos with/without the associated sounds, and either in covert (central fixation) or overt (eye-movements allowed) viewing conditions. For each stimulus, we used computational models (‘saliency maps’) to characterize auditory and visual stimulus-driven signals, and eye-movements (recorded in free viewing) as a measure of the efficacy of these signals for spatial orienting. Results showed that visual saliency modulated activity in the occipital cortex contralateral to the visual event; while auditory saliency modulated activity in the superior temporal gyrus bilaterally. In the posterior parietal cortex activity increased with increasing auditory saliency, but only when the auditory stimulus was on the same side as the visual event. The efficacy of the stimulus-driven signals modulated activity in the visual cortex. We conclude that: (1) audiovisual attention can be successfully investigated in real-like situations; (2) activity in sensory areas reflects a combination of stimulus-driven signals (saliency) and their efficacy for spatial orienting; (3) posterior parietal cortex processes auditory input as a function of its spatial relationship with the visual input.

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