Prefrontal contributions to metacognition in perceptual decision making.

Neuroscience has made considerable progress in understanding the neural substrates supporting cognitive performance in a number of domains, including memory, perception, and decision making. In contrast, how the human brain generates metacognitive awareness of task performance remains unclear. Here,...

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Main Authors: Fleming, S, Huijgen, J, Dolan, R
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2012
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author Fleming, S
Huijgen, J
Dolan, R
author_facet Fleming, S
Huijgen, J
Dolan, R
author_sort Fleming, S
collection OXFORD
description Neuroscience has made considerable progress in understanding the neural substrates supporting cognitive performance in a number of domains, including memory, perception, and decision making. In contrast, how the human brain generates metacognitive awareness of task performance remains unclear. Here, we address this question by asking participants to perform perceptual decisions while providing concurrent metacognitive reports during fMRI scanning. We show that activity in right rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (rlPFC) satisfies three constraints for a role in metacognitive aspects of decision-making. Right rlPFC showed greater activity during self-report compared to a matched control condition, activity in this region correlated with reported confidence, and the strength of the relationship between activity and confidence predicted metacognitive ability across individuals. In addition, functional connectivity between right rlPFC and both contralateral PFC and visual cortex increased during metacognitive reports. We discuss these findings in a theoretical framework where rlPFC re-represents object-level decision uncertainty to facilitate metacognitive report.
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spelling oxford-uuid:1bc66531-65d5-4ab0-95ee-945b8e0ac89b2022-03-26T11:02:16ZPrefrontal contributions to metacognition in perceptual decision making.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:1bc66531-65d5-4ab0-95ee-945b8e0ac89bEnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2012Fleming, SHuijgen, JDolan, RNeuroscience has made considerable progress in understanding the neural substrates supporting cognitive performance in a number of domains, including memory, perception, and decision making. In contrast, how the human brain generates metacognitive awareness of task performance remains unclear. Here, we address this question by asking participants to perform perceptual decisions while providing concurrent metacognitive reports during fMRI scanning. We show that activity in right rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (rlPFC) satisfies three constraints for a role in metacognitive aspects of decision-making. Right rlPFC showed greater activity during self-report compared to a matched control condition, activity in this region correlated with reported confidence, and the strength of the relationship between activity and confidence predicted metacognitive ability across individuals. In addition, functional connectivity between right rlPFC and both contralateral PFC and visual cortex increased during metacognitive reports. We discuss these findings in a theoretical framework where rlPFC re-represents object-level decision uncertainty to facilitate metacognitive report.
spellingShingle Fleming, S
Huijgen, J
Dolan, R
Prefrontal contributions to metacognition in perceptual decision making.
title Prefrontal contributions to metacognition in perceptual decision making.
title_full Prefrontal contributions to metacognition in perceptual decision making.
title_fullStr Prefrontal contributions to metacognition in perceptual decision making.
title_full_unstemmed Prefrontal contributions to metacognition in perceptual decision making.
title_short Prefrontal contributions to metacognition in perceptual decision making.
title_sort prefrontal contributions to metacognition in perceptual decision making
work_keys_str_mv AT flemings prefrontalcontributionstometacognitioninperceptualdecisionmaking
AT huijgenj prefrontalcontributionstometacognitioninperceptualdecisionmaking
AT dolanr prefrontalcontributionstometacognitioninperceptualdecisionmaking