Confidence in subjective pain: Exploring associations between confidence, eye fixations, and reaction time during pain-related decision making

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Troy C. Dildine ◽  
Elizabeth A. Necka ◽  
Lauren Yvette Atlas
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Pain Rating ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Perceptual Decision ◽  
Eye Fixations ◽  
Pain Ratings ◽  
Subjective Pain

Self-report is the gold standard for measuring pain. However, decisions about pain can vary substantially within and between individuals. We measured whether self-reported pain is accompanied by metacognition and variations in confidence, similar to perceptual decision-making in other modalities. Eighty healthy volunteers underwent acute thermal pain and provided pain ratings followed by confidence judgments on continuous visual analogue scales. We investigated whether eye fixations and reaction time during pain rating might serve as implicit markers of confidence. Confidence varied across trials and increased confidence was associated with faster pain rating reaction times. The association between confidence and fixations varied across individuals as a function of the reliability of individuals’ association between temperature and pain. Taken together, this work indicates that individuals can provide metacognitive judgments of pain and extends research on confidence in perceptual decision-making to pain.

scholarly journals Confidence in subjective pain is predicted by reaction time during decision making

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Troy C. Dildine ◽  
Elizabeth A. Necka ◽  
Lauren Y. Atlas
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Pain Rating ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Perceptual Decision ◽  
Thermal Pain ◽  
Pain Ratings ◽  
Subjective Pain

AbstractSelf-report is the gold standard for measuring pain. However, decisions about pain can vary substantially within and between individuals. We measured whether self-reported pain is accompanied by metacognition and variations in confidence, similar to perceptual decision-making in other modalities. Eighty healthy volunteers underwent acute thermal pain and provided pain ratings followed by confidence judgments on continuous visual analogue scales. We investigated whether eye fixations and reaction time during pain rating might serve as implicit markers of confidence. Confidence varied across trials and increased confidence was associated with faster pain rating reaction times. The association between confidence and fixations varied across individuals as a function of the reliability of individuals’ association between temperature and pain. Taken together, this work indicates that individuals can provide metacognitive judgments of pain and extends research on confidence in perceptual decision-making to pain.

scholarly journals Perceptual decisions about object shape bias visuomotor coordination during rapid interception movements

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah A. Barany ◽  
Ana Gómez-Granados ◽  
Margaret Schrayer ◽  
Sarah A. Cutts ◽  
Tarkeshwar Singh
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Task Complexity ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Ventral Stream ◽  
Perceptual Identification ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Visuomotor Coordination ◽  
Perceptual Decision

AbstractVisual processing in parietal areas of the dorsal stream facilitates sensorimotor transformations for rapid movement. This action-related visual processing is hypothesized to play a distinct functional role from the perception-related processing in the ventral stream. However, it is unclear how the two streams interact when perceptual identification is a prerequisite to executing an accurate movement. In the current study, we investigated how perceptual decision-making involving the ventral stream influences arm and eye movement strategies. Participants (N = 26) moved a robotic manipulandum using right whole-arm movements to rapidly reach a stationary object or intercept a moving object on an augmented-reality display. On some blocks of trials, participants needed to identify the shape of the object (circle or ellipse) as a cue to either hit the object (circle) or move to a pre-defined location away from the object (ellipse). We found that during perceptual decision-making, there was an increased urgency to act during interception movements relative to reaching, which was associated with more decision errors. Faster hand reaction times were correlated with a strategy to adjust the movement post-initiation, and this strategy was more prominent during interception. Saccadic reaction times were faster and initial gaze lags and gains greater during decisions, suggesting that eye movements adapt to perceptual demands for guiding limb movements. Together, our findings suggest that the integration of ventral stream information with visuomotor planning depends on imposed (or perceived) task demands.New and NoteworthyVisual processing for perception and for action are thought to be mediated by two specialized neural pathways. Using a visuomotor decision-making task, we show that participants differentially utilized online perceptual decision-making in reaching and interception, and that eye movements necessary for perception influenced motor decision strategies. These results provide evidence that task complexity modulates how pathways processing perception versus action information interact during the visual control of movement.

scholarly journals Evidence against perfect integration of sensory information during perceptual decision making

2016 ◽  
Vol 115 (2) ◽  
pp. 915-930 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Carland ◽  
Encarni Marcos ◽  
David Thura ◽  
Paul Cisek
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Temporal Integration ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Pass Filter ◽  
Low Pass Filter ◽  
Perceptual Decision ◽  
Low Pass

Perceptual decision making is often modeled as perfect integration of sequential sensory samples until the accumulated total reaches a fixed decision bound. In that view, the buildup of neural activity during perceptual decision making is attributed to temporal integration. However, an alternative explanation is that sensory estimates are computed quickly with a low-pass filter and combined with a growing signal reflecting the urgency to respond and it is the latter that is primarily responsible for neural activity buildup. These models are difficult to distinguish empirically because they make similar predictions for tasks in which sensory information is constant within a trial, as in most previous studies. Here we presented subjects with a variant of the classic constant-coherence motion discrimination (CMD) task in which we inserted brief motion pulses. We examined the effect of these pulses on reaction times (RTs) in two conditions: 1) when the CMD trials were blocked and subjects responded quickly and 2) when the same CMD trials were interleaved among trials of a variable-motion coherence task that motivated slower decisions. In the blocked condition, early pulses had a strong effect on RTs but late pulses did not, consistent with both models. However, when subjects slowed their decision policy in the interleaved condition, later pulses now became effective while early pulses lost their efficacy. This last result contradicts models based on perfect integration of sensory evidence and implies that motion signals are processed with a strong leak, equivalent to a low-pass filter with a short time constant.

scholarly journals Inter-trial effects in visual pop-out search: Factorial comparison of Bayesian updating models

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fredrik Allenmark ◽  
Hermann J. Müller ◽  
Zhuanghua Shi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Model Comparison ◽  
Accumulation Rate ◽  
Information Processing Speed ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Perceptual Decision ◽  
Decision Bias ◽  
Evidence Accumulation ◽  
Starting Point

AbstractMany previous studies on visual search have reported inter-trial effects, that is, observers respond faster when some target property, such as a defining feature or dimension, or the response associated with the target repeats versus changes across consecutive trial episodes. However, what processes drive these inter-trial effects is still controversial. Here, we investigated this question using a combination of Bayesian modeling of belief updating and evidence accumulation modeling in perceptual decision-making. In three visual singleton (‘pop-out’) search experiments, we explored how the probability of the response-critical states of the search display (e.g., target presence/absence) and the repetition/switch of the target-defining dimension (color/ orientation) affect reaction time distributions. The results replicated the mean reaction time (RT) inter-trial and dimension repetition/switch effects that have been reported in previous studies. Going beyond this, to uncover the underlying mechanisms, we used the Drift-Diffusion Model (DDM) and the Linear Approach to Threshold with Ergodic Rate (LATER) model to explain the RT distributions in terms of decision bias (starting point) and information processing speed (evidence accumulation rate). We further investigated how these different aspects of the decision-making process are affected by different properties of stimulus history, giving rise to dissociable inter-trial effects. We approached this question by (i) combining each perceptual decision making model (DDM or LATER) with different updating models, each specifying a plausible rule for updating of either the starting point or the rate, based on stimulus history, and (ii) comparing every possible combination of trial-wise updating mechanism and perceptual decision model in a factorial model comparison. Consistently across experiments, we found that the (recent) history of the response-critical property influences the initial decision bias, while repetition/switch of the target-defining dimension affects the accumulation rate, likely reflecting an implicit ‘top-down’ modulation process. This provides strong evidence of a disassociation between response- and dimension-based inter-trial effects.

scholarly journals Proactive and reactive accumulation-to-bound processes compete during perceptual decisions

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lluís Hernández-Navarro ◽  
Ainhoa Hermoso-Mendizabal ◽  
Daniel Duque ◽  
Jaime de la Rocha ◽  
Alexandre Hyafil
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Stimulus Presentation ◽  
Auditory Task ◽  
Decision Threshold ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Evidence Accumulation ◽  
Standard Models ◽  
Action Initiation

AbstractStandard models of perceptual decision-making postulate that a response is triggered in reaction to stimulus presentation when the accumulated stimulus evidence reaches a decision threshold. This framework excludes however the possibility that informed responses are generated proactively at a time independent of stimulus. Here, we find that, in a free reaction time auditory task in rats, reactive and proactive responses coexist, suggesting that choice selection and motor initiation, commonly viewed as serial processes, are decoupled in general. We capture this behavior by a novel model in which proactive and reactive responses are triggered whenever either of two competing processes, respectively Action Initiation or Evidence Accumulation, reaches a bound. In both types of response, the choice is ultimately informed by the Evidence Accumulation process. The Action Initiation process readily explains premature responses, contributes to urgency effects at long reaction times and mediates the slowing of the responses as animals get satiated and tired during sessions. Moreover, it successfully predicts reaction time distributions when the stimulus was either delayed, advanced or omitted. Overall, these results fundamentally extend standard models of evidence accumulation in decision making by showing that proactive and reactive processes compete for the generation of responses.

scholarly journals Behavioural and neural signatures of perceptual decision-making are modulated by pupil-linked arousal

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jochem van Kempen ◽  
Gerard M Loughnane ◽  
Daniel P Newman ◽  
Simon P Kelly ◽  
Alexander Thiele ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sensory Processing ◽  
Pupil Diameter ◽  
Target Selection ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Perceptual Decision ◽  
Attentional Engagement ◽  
Processing Steps

The timing and accuracy of perceptual decision-making is exquisitely sensitive to fluctuations in arousal. Although extensive research has highlighted the role of various neural processing stages in forming decisions, our understanding of how arousal impacts these processes remains limited. Here we isolated electrophysiological signatures of decision-making alongside signals reflecting target selection, attentional engagement and motor output and examined their modulation as a function of tonic and phasic arousal, indexed by baseline and task-evoked pupil diameter, respectively. Reaction times were shorter on trials with lower tonic, and higher phasic arousal. Additionally, these two pupil measures were predictive of a unique set of EEG signatures that together represent multiple information processing steps of decision-making. Finally, behavioural variability associated with fluctuations in tonic and phasic arousal, indicative of neuromodulators acting on multiple timescales, was mediated by its effects on the EEG markers of attentional engagement, sensory processing and the variability in decision processing.

scholarly journals The Effects of Time Pressure on Temporal Overestimation Due to Threat

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Jason Tipples ◽  
Michael Lupton ◽  
David George
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Time Pressure ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Internal Clock ◽  
Multilevel Logistic Regression ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Perceptual Decision ◽  
Do So ◽  
Facial Threat

Abstract How does emotion change the way we perceive time? Studies have shown that we overestimate the duration of faces that express anger of fear–an effect that has been explained as due the speeding of a pacemaker that resides within an internal clock. Here, we test the idea that attending longer to facial threat leads to an overestimation of time. Seventy participants (16 male) estimated the duration of angry, fearful and neutral expressions under conditions designed to either reduce attention to time (by emphasising speedy responses) or lengthen attention to time (by emphasising accuracy). Results were modelled using Bayesian Multilevel Logistic Regression. The results replicate previous findings: speed emphasis reduced temporal sensitivity and led to both a higher overall proportion of long responses and faster reaction times. Facial threat attenuated the drop in temporal sensitivity due to speed instructions supporting the idea that people prolong attention to threat (even when they are not directly instructed to do so). We relate the findings to research into attention bias to threat and more broadly to models of perceptual decision making.

Discarding optimality: Throwing out the baby with the bathwater?

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Simen ◽  
Fuat Balcı
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Reward Rate ◽  
Perceptual Decision ◽  
Standard Observer ◽  
Rate Maximization ◽  
Reward Rate Maximization ◽  
Descriptive Standard ◽  
Observer Model

AbstractRahnev & Denison (R&D) argue against normative theories and in favor of a more descriptive “standard observer model” of perceptual decision making. We agree with the authors in many respects, but we argue that optimality (specifically, reward-rate maximization) has proved demonstrably useful as a hypothesis, contrary to the authors’ claims.

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