Causal evidence for a domain-specific role of left superior frontal sulcus in human perceptual decision-making

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Barretto Garcia ◽  
Marcus Grueschow ◽  
Marius Moisa ◽  
Rafael Polania ◽  
Christian Carl Ruff
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sequential Sampling ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Neural Processes ◽  
Sequential Sampling Model ◽  
Evidence Integration ◽  
Superior Frontal Sulcus

Humans and animals can flexibly choose their actions based on different information, ranging from objective states of the environment (e.g., apples are bigger than cherries) to subjective preferences (e.g., cherries are tastier than apples). Whether the brain instantiates these different choices by recruiting either specialized or shared neural circuitry remains debated. Specifically, domain-general theories of prefrontal cortex (PFC) function propose that prefrontal areas flexibly process either perceptual or value-based evidence depending on what is required for the present choice, whereas domain-specific theories posit that PFC sub- areas, such as the left superior frontal sulcus (SFS), selectively integrate evidence relevant for perceptual decisions. Here we comprehensively test the functional role of the left SFS for choices based on perceptual and value-based evidence, by combining fMRI with a behavioural paradigm, computational modelling, and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Confirming predictions by a sequential sampling model, we show that TMS-induced excitability reduction of the left SFS selectively changes the processing of decision-relevant perceptual information and associated neural processes. In contrast, value-based decision making and associated neural processes remain unaffected. This specificity of SFS function is evident at all levels of analysis (behavioural, computational, and neural, including functional connectivity), demonstrating that the left SFS causally contributes to evidence integration for  perceptual but not value-based decisions.

scholarly journals Rat Prefrontal Cortex Inactivations during Decision Making Are Explained by Bistable Attractor Dynamics

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 2861-2886 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex T. Piet ◽  
Jeffrey C. Erlich ◽  
Charles D. Kopec ◽  
Carlos D. Brody
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Memory Model ◽  
Network Configuration ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Attractor Networks ◽  
Attractor Dynamics ◽  
Flexible Models ◽  
Evidence Integration

Two-node attractor networks are flexible models for neural activity during decision making. Depending on the network configuration, these networks can model distinct aspects of decisions including evidence integration, evidence categorization, and decision memory. Here, we use attractor networks to model recent causal perturbations of the frontal orienting fields (FOF) in rat cortex during a perceptual decision-making task (Erlich, Brunton, Duan, Hanks, & Brody, 2015 ). We focus on a striking feature of the perturbation results. Pharmacological silencing of the FOF resulted in a stimulus-independent bias. We fit several models to test whether integration, categorization, or decision memory could account for this bias and found that only the memory configuration successfully accounts for it. This memory model naturally accounts for optogenetic perturbations of FOF in the same task and correctly predicts a memory-duration-dependent deficit caused by silencing FOF in a different task. Our results provide mechanistic support for a “postcategorization” memory role of the FOF in upcoming choices.

Sources of Stress-Resistant Performance in Aeronautical Decision Making: The Role of Knowledge Representation and Trait Anxiety

1995 ◽  
Vol 39 (13) ◽  
pp. 887-890 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan F. Stokes
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Knowledge Representation ◽  
Trait Anxiety ◽  
Flight Simulation ◽  
Cognitive Tests ◽  
Personality Tests ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Significant Decrement ◽  
Simulation Task

It is not clear what elements best “protect” performance from the degrading influences of stress, or how they interact. The experiment reported here examined the effects of trait anxiety and expertise on stressed aeronautical decision making (ADM) performance in a flight simulation task. Novice and expert pilots were administered a battery of cognitive tests, personality tests, and a flight simulation task under stressed and nonstressed conditions. Both groups showed a significant decrement in performance under stress in the non-domain-specific tasks. However, this was not reflected in any performance decrement in ADM under stress by experienced pilots. Only novice pilots made poorer decisions under stress. Measures of knowledge representation were very predictive of proficient ADM under stress. In contrast, trait anxiety scores (equal for both groups) were associated with poorer ADM only in the novice group. Highly trait-anxious experts showed no performance decrements in ADM under stress.

scholarly journals P2-16: Dual-Bound Model and the Role of Time Bound in Perceptual Decision Making

i-Perception ◽  
10.1068/if676 ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
pp. 676-676
Author(s):  
Daeseob Lim ◽  
Hansem Sohn ◽  
Sang-Hun Lee
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Perceptual Decision ◽  
Dual Bound

scholarly journals The Role of Passing Time in Decision-Making

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan J. Evans ◽  
Guy Hawkins ◽  
Scott Brown
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Task Design ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Improve Performance ◽  
Decision Speed ◽  
Decision Environments ◽  
Threshold Amount ◽  
And Task ◽  
Response Deadlines

Theories of perceptual decision-making have been dominated by the idea that evidence accumulates in favor of different alternatives until some fixed threshold amount is reached, which triggers a decision. Recent theories have suggested that these thresholds may not be fixed during each decision, but change as time passes. These collapsing thresholds can improve performance in particular decision environments, but reviews of data from typical decision-making paradigms have failed to support collapsing thresholds. We designed three experiments to test collapsing threshold assumptions in decision environments specifically tailored to make them optimal. An emphasis on decision speed encouraged the adoption of collapsing thresholds – most strongly through the use of response deadlines, but also through instruction to a lesser extent – but setting an explicit goal of reward rate optimality through both instructions and task design did not. Our results provide a new explanation for previous findings regarding decision-making differences between humans and non-human primates.

scholarly journals Temporal-sensitive prefrontal involvement in associating confidence with task performance illustrates metacognitive introspection in Old World monkeys (Macaca mulatta)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yudian Cai ◽  
Zhiyong Jin ◽  
Chenxi Zhai ◽  
Huimin Wang ◽  
Jijun Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Critical Time ◽  
Single Pulse ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Ample Evidence ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Stimulation Technique

AbstractMetacognition refers to the ability to be aware of one’s own cognition. Ample evidence indicate that metacognition in the human primate is highly dissociable from cognition, specialized across domains, and subserved by distinct neural substrates. However, these aspects remain relatively understudied in the macaque monkeys. Here we investigated the functionality of macaques’ metacognition by combining a confidence proxy, hierarchical Bayesian meta-d’ computational modelling, and single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation technique. We found a critical role of Brodmann Area 46d (BA 46d) in supporting metacognition without implicating task performance and its critical time-sensitive role in meta-calculation. We additionally revealed that macaque metacognition is highly domain-specific with respect to memory and perception decisions. These findings carry implications for our understanding of metacognitive introspection within the primate lineage.

scholarly journals Visuo-Locomotive Update in the Wild. The Role of (Un)Familiarity in Choice of Navigation Strategy, and its Application in Computational Spatial Design

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasiliki Kondyli ◽  
Mehul Bhatt
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Spatial Updating ◽  
Perceptual Cues ◽  
Design Synthesis ◽  
Spatial Design ◽  
Navigation Strategy ◽  
In The Wild

We study active human visuo-locomotive experience in everyday navigation from the viewpoints of environmental familiarity, embodied reorientation, and (sensorimotor) spatial update. Following a naturalistic, in situ, embodied multimodal behaviour analysis method, we conclude that familiar users rely on environmental cues as a navigation-aid and exhibit proactive decision-making, whereas unfamiliar users rely on manifest cues, are late in decision-making, and show no sign of sensorimotor spatial update. Qualitative analysis reveals that both groups are able to sketch-map their route and consider path integration: i.e., conscious spatial representation updating was possible but not preferred during active navigation. Overall, the experimental task did not trigger automatic or reflexlike spatial updating, as subjects preferred strategies involving memory of perceptual cues and available manifest cues instead of relying on motor simulation and continuous spatial update. Rooted in the behavioural outcomes, we also position applications in computational modelling of navigation within cognitive technologies for architectural design synthesis.

scholarly journals A self-initiated two-alternative forced choice paradigm for head-fixed mice

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Marbach ◽  
Anthony M. Zador
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Forced Choice ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Neuronal Populations ◽  
Freely Moving ◽  
Forced Choice Tasks ◽  
Genetic Targeting ◽  
Choice Tasks ◽  
Decision Errors

AbstractPsychophysical tasks for non-human primates have been instrumental in studying circuits underlying perceptual decision-making. To obtain greater experimental flexibility, these tasks have subsequently been adapted for use in freely moving rodents. However, advances in functional imaging and genetic targeting of neuronal populations have made it critical to develop similar tasks for head-fixed mice. Although head-fixed mice have been trained in two-alternative forced choice tasks before, these tasks were not self-initiated, making it difficult to attribute error trials to perceptual or decision errors as opposed to mere lapses in task engagement. Here, we describe a paradigm for head-fixed mice with three lick spouts, analogous to the well-established 3-port paradigm for freely moving rodents. Mice readily learned to initiate trials on the center spout and performed around 200 self-initiated trials per session, reaching good psychometric performance within two weeks of training. We expect this paradigm will be useful to study the role of defined neural populations in sensory processing and decision-making.

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