scholarly journals Using confidence inferred from pupil-size to dissect perceptual task-strategy: support for a bounded decision-formation process

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katsuhisa Kawaguchi ◽  
Stephane Clery ◽  
Paria Pourriahi ◽  
Lenka Seillier ◽  
Ralf Haefner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pupil Size ◽  
Neuronal Response ◽  
Perceptual Task ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Decision Confidence ◽  
Attractor Dynamics ◽  
Task Strategy ◽  
Decision Area ◽  
Sensory Evidence ◽  
Account Due

During perceptual decisions subjects often rely more strongly on early rather than late sensory evidence even in tasks when both are equally informative about the correct decision. This early psychophysical weighting has been explained by an integration-to-bound decision process, in which the stimulus is ignored after the accumulated evidence reaches a certain bound, or confidence level. Here, we derive predictions about how the average temporal weighting of the evidence depends on a subject’s decision-confidence in this model. To test these predictions empirically, we devised a method to infer decision-confidence from pupil size in monkeys performing a disparity discrimination task. Our animals’ data confirmed the integration-to-bound predictions, with different internal decision-bounds accounting for differences between animals. However, the data could not be explained by two alternative accounts for early psychophysical weighting: attractor dynamics either within the decision area or due to feedback to sensory areas, or a feedforward account due to neuronal response adaptation. This approach also opens the door to using confidence more broadly when studying the neural basis of decision-making.

scholarly journals Flexible categorization in perceptual decision making

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Genís Prat-Ortega ◽  
Klaus Wimmer ◽  
Alex Roxin ◽  
Jaime de la Rocha
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Network Models ◽  
Drift Diffusion Model ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Drift Diffusion ◽  
Perceptual Decision ◽  
Attractor Dynamics ◽  
Attractor Model ◽  
Sensory Evidence ◽  
Winner Take All

AbstractPerceptual decisions rely on accumulating sensory evidence. This computation has been studied using either drift diffusion models or neurobiological network models exhibiting winner-take-all attractor dynamics. Although both models can account for a large amount of data, it remains unclear whether their dynamics are qualitatively equivalent. Here we show that in the attractor model, but not in the drift diffusion model, an increase in the stimulus fluctuations or the stimulus duration promotes transitions between decision states. The increase in the number of transitions leads to a crossover between weighting mostly early evidence (primacy) to weighting late evidence (recency), a prediction we validate with psychophysical data. Between these two limiting cases, we found a novel flexible categorization regime, in which fluctuations can reverse initially-incorrect categorizations. This reversal asymmetry results in a non-monotonic psychometric curve, a distinctive feature of the attractor model. Our findings point to correcting decision reversals as an important feature of perceptual decision making.

scholarly journals A visual circuit uses complementary mechanisms to support transient and sustained pupil constriction

eLife ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Thomas Keenan ◽  
Alan C Rupp ◽  
Rachel A Ross ◽  
Preethi Somasundaram ◽  
Suja Hiriyanna ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Coding ◽  
Pupil Size ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Ganglion Cells ◽  
Retinal Ganglion ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Behavioral Dynamics ◽  
Pupil Constriction ◽  
Sustained Responses ◽  
Stable Control

Rapid and stable control of pupil size in response to light is critical for vision, but the neural coding mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we investigated the neural basis of pupil control by monitoring pupil size across time while manipulating each photoreceptor input or neurotransmitter output of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs), a critical relay in the control of pupil size. We show that transient and sustained pupil responses are mediated by distinct photoreceptors and neurotransmitters. Transient responses utilize input from rod photoreceptors and output by the classical neurotransmitter glutamate, but adapt within minutes. In contrast, sustained responses are dominated by non-conventional signaling mechanisms: melanopsin phototransduction in ipRGCs and output by the neuropeptide PACAP, which provide stable pupil maintenance across the day. These results highlight a temporal switch in the coding mechanisms of a neural circuit to support proper behavioral dynamics.

scholarly journals Global visual confidence

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan L. F. Lee ◽  
Vincent de Gardelle ◽  
Pascal Mamassian
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Model Comparison ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Confidence Judgment ◽  
Orientation Discrimination ◽  
Perceptual Task ◽  
Choice Accuracy ◽  
Sensory Evidence ◽  
Discrimination Judgment ◽  
Time Information

AbstractVisual confidence is the observers’ estimate of their precision in one single perceptual decision. Ultimately, however, observers often need to judge their confidence over a task in general rather than merely on one single decision. Here, we measured the global confidence acquired across multiple perceptual decisions. Participants performed a dual task on two series of oriented stimuli. The perceptual task was an orientation-discrimination judgment. The metacognitive task was a global confidence judgment: observers chose the series for which they felt they had performed better in the perceptual task. We found that choice accuracy in global confidence judgments improved as the number of items in the series increased, regardless of whether the global confidence judgment was made before (prospective) or after (retrospective) the perceptual decisions. This result is evidence that global confidence judgment was based on an integration of confidence information across multiple perceptual decisions rather than on a single one. Furthermore, we found a tendency for global confidence choices to be influenced by response times, and more so for recent perceptual decisions than earlier ones in the series of stimuli. Using model comparison, we found that global confidence is well described as a combination of noisy estimates of sensory evidence and position-weighted response-time evidence. In summary, humans can integrate information across multiple decisions to estimate global confidence, but this integration is not optimal, in particular because of biases in the use of response-time information.

Prestimulus hemodynamic activity in dorsal attention network is negatively associated with decision confidence in visual perception

2012 ◽  
Vol 108 (5) ◽  
pp. 1529-1536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dobromir A. Rahnev ◽  
Linda Bahdo ◽  
Floris P. de Lange ◽  
Hakwan Lau
Keyword(s):  
Subjective Perception ◽  
Theoretic Model ◽  
Endogenous Attention ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Attention Network ◽  
Decision Confidence ◽  
Direction Discrimination ◽  
Dorsal Attention Network ◽  
Spontaneous Fluctuations

Attention is thought to improve most aspects of perception. However, we recently showed that, somewhat surprisingly, endogenous attention can also lead to low subjective perceptual ratings ( Rahnev et al., 2011 ). Here we investigated the neural basis of this effect and tested whether spontaneous fluctuations of the attentional state can lead to low confidence in one's perceptual decision. We measured prestimulus functional magnetic resonance imaging activity in the dorsal attention network and used that activity as an index of the level of attention involved in a motion direction discrimination task. Extending our previous findings, we showed that low prestimulus activity in the dorsal attention network, which presumably reflected low level of attention, was associated with higher confidence ratings. These results were explained by a signal detection theoretic model in which lack of attention increases the trial-by-trial variability of the internal perceptual response. In line with the model, we also found that low prestimulus activity in the dorsal attention network was associated with higher trial-by-trial variability of poststimulus peak activity in the motion-sensitive region MT+. These findings support the notion that lack of attention may lead to liberal subjective perceptual biases, a phenomenon we call “inattentional inflation of subjective perception.”

scholarly journals Global visual confidence

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan L. F. Lee ◽  
Vincent de Gardelle ◽  
Pascal Mamassian
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Model Comparison ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Confidence Judgment ◽  
Orientation Discrimination ◽  
Perceptual Task ◽  
Choice Accuracy ◽  
Sensory Evidence ◽  
Discrimination Judgment ◽  
Time Information

Visual confidence is the observers’ estimate of their precision in one single perceptual decision. Ultimately, however, observers often need to judge their confidence over a task in general rather than merely on one single decision. Here, we measured the global confidence acquired across multiple perceptual decisions. Participants performed a dual task on two series of oriented stimuli. The perceptual task was an orientation-discrimination judgment. The metacognitive task was a global confidence judgment: observers chose the series for which they felt they had performed better in the perceptual task. We found that choice accuracy in global confidence judgments improved as the number of items in the series increased, regardless of whether the global confidence judgment was made before (prospective) or after (retrospective) the perceptual decisions. This result is evidence that global confidence judgment was based on an integration of confidence information across multiple perceptual decisions rather than on a single one. Furthermore, we found a tendency for global confidence choices to be influenced by response times, and more so for recent perceptual decisions than earlier ones in the series of stimuli. Using model comparison, we found that global confidence is well described as a combination of noisy estimates of sensory evidence and position-weighted response-time evidence. In summary, humans can integrate information across multiple decisions to estimate global confidence, but this integration is not optimal, in particular because of biases in the use of response-time information.

scholarly journals Predictions shape confidence in right inferior frontal gyrus

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxine T. Sherman ◽  
Anil K. Seth ◽  
Ryota Kanai
Keyword(s):  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Matter Density ◽  
Fmri Data ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Prior Beliefs ◽  
Decision Confidence ◽  
Subjective Confidence

AbstractIt is clear that prior expectations shape perceptual decision-making, yet their contribution to the construction of subjective decision confidence remains largely unexplored. We recorded fMRI data while participants made perceptual decisions and confidence judgements, controlling for potential confounds of attention. Results show that subjective confidence increases as perceptual prior expectations increasingly support the decision, and that this relationship is associated with BOLD activity in right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG). Specifically, rIFG is sensitive to the discrepancy between expectation and decision (mismatch), and, crucially, higher mismatch responses are associated with lower decision confidence. Connectivity analyses revealed the source of the expectancy information to be bilateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the source of sensory signals to be intracalcarine sulcus. Altogether, our results indicate that predictive information is integrated into subjective confidence in rIFG, and reveal an occipital-frontal network that constructs confidence from top-down and bottom-up signals. This interpretation was further supported by exploratory findings that the white matter density of intracalcarine sulcus and OFC negatively predicted their respective contributions to the construction of confidence. Our findings advance our understanding of the neural basis of subjective perceptual processes by revealing an occipito-frontal functional network that integrates prior beliefs into the construction of confidence.

scholarly journals Neural basis of location-specific pupil luminance modulation

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (41) ◽  
pp. 10446-10451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chin-An Wang ◽  
Douglas P. Munoz
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Pupil Size ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Luminance Level ◽  
Neural Pathways ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Intermediate Layers ◽  
Saccade Preparation

Spatial attention enables us to focus visual processing toward specific locations or stimuli before the next fixation. Recent evidence has suggested that local luminance at the spatial locus of attention or saccade preparation influences pupil size independent of global luminance levels. However, it remains to be determined which neural pathways produce this location-specific modulation of pupil size. The intermediate layers of the midbrain superior colliculus (SC) form part of the network of brain areas involved in spatial attention and modulation of pupil size. Here, we demonstrated that pupil size was altered according to local luminance level at the spatial location corresponding to a microstimulated location in the intermediate SC (SCi) map of monkeys. Moreover, local SCi inactivation through injection of lidocaine reversed this local luminance modulation. Our findings reveal a causal role of the SCi in preparing pupil size for local luminance conditions at the next saccadic goal.

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.

scholarly journals Neural Correlates of Sequence Encoding in Visuomotor Learning

2010 ◽  
Vol 103 (3) ◽  
pp. 1418-1424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yigal Agam ◽  
Jie Huang ◽  
Robert Sekuler
Keyword(s):  
Sequence Learning ◽  
Serial Order ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Perceptual Task ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Visuomotor Learning ◽  
Repetition Suppression ◽  
Human Ability ◽  
Repeated Observation ◽  
Related Potentials

To examine the neural basis of sequence learning, a fundamental but poorly understood human ability, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) while subjects viewed and memorized randomly directed sequences of motions for later imitation. Previously, we found that the amplitude of ERPs elicited by successive motion segments decreased as a function of each segment's serial position. This happened when subjects were required to remember the sequence, but not when they were performing a perceptual task. Here, to study the functional significance of this amplitude gradient in sequence learning, we presented each sequence several times in succession and examined changes in ERP amplitude as subjects learned the sequence through repeated observation and imitation. Behaviorally, with each repetition subjects grew more accurate in reproducing what they had seen. At the same time, ERPs grew smaller with each successive presentation, replicating and extending previous demonstrations of repetition suppression. Importantly, a comparison of ERPs to segments occupying different serial positions within a sequence revealed a decreasing amplitude gradient that grew steeper with sequence repetition. This sharpening of the amplitude gradient may reflect an explicit encoding process that relies on a magnitude code for serial order.

scholarly journals Decision-making through integration of sensory evidence at prolonged timescales

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael L. Waskom ◽  
Roozbeh Kiani
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Biological Networks ◽  
Network Models ◽  
Neuronal Responses ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Neural Network Models ◽  
Memory Leak ◽  
Sensory Evidence ◽  
Long Timescales ◽  
Evidence Integration

SummaryWhen multiple pieces of information bear on a decision, the best approach is to combine the evidence provided by each one. Evidence integration models formalize the computations underlying this process [1–3], explain human perceptual discrimination behavior [4–11], and correspond to neuronal responses elicited by discrimination tasks [12–17]. These findings indicate that evidence integration is key to understanding the neural basis of decision-making [18–21]. Evidence integration has most often been studied with simple tasks that limit the timescale of deliberation to hundreds of milliseconds, but many natural decisions unfold over much longer durations. Because neural network models imply acute limitations on the timescale of evidence integration [22–26], it is unknown whether current computational insights can generalize beyond rapid judgments. Here, we introduce a new psychophysical task and report model-based analyses of human behavior that demonstrate evidence integration at long timescales. Our task requires probabilistic inference using brief samples of visual evidence that are separated in time by long and unpredictable gaps. We show through several quantitative assays how decision-making can approximate a normative integration process that extends over tens of seconds without accruing significant memory leak or noise. These results support the generalization of evidence integration models to a broader class of behaviors while posing new challenges for models of how these computations are implemented in biological networks.

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