scholarly journals The Role of Cerebral Metabolism in Improving Time Pressured Decisions

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
An Thanh Vu ◽  
David A. Feinberg
Keyword(s):  
Time Pressure ◽  
Cerebral Metabolism ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Oxygen Metabolism ◽  
Initial Dip ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Speed Accuracy ◽  
Speed And Accuracy

Speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT) theory dictates that decisions can be made more quickly by sacrificing accuracy. Here we investigate whether the human brain can operate in a brief metabolic overdrive to overcome SAT and successfully make decisions requiring both high levels of speed and accuracy. In the context of BOLD fMRI we expect “a brief metabolic overdrive” to involve an increase in cerebral oxygen metabolism prior to increased cerebral blood flow–a phenomenon known as the “initial dip” which results from a sudden drop in oxyhemoglobin in perfusing blood. Human subjects performed a motion discrimination task consisting of different difficulties while emphasizing either accuracy (i.e., without time pressure) or both speed and accuracy (i.e., with time pressure). Using simultaneous multi-slice fMRI, for very fast (333 ms) measurement of whole brain BOLD activity, revealed two modes of physiological overdrive responses when subjects emphasized both speed and accuracy. The majority of subjects exhibited the hypothesized enhancement of initial dip amplitude in posterior visual cortex (PVC) with the size of the enhancement significantly correlated with improvement in behavioral performance. For these subjects, the traditionally analyzed post-stimulus overshoot was not affected by task emphasis. These results demonstrate the complexity and variability of the BOLD hemodynamic response. The discovered relationships between BOLD response and behavior were only observed when subjects emphasized both speed and accuracy in more difficult trials suggesting that the brain can perform in a state of metabolic overdrive with enhanced neural processing of sensory information specifically in challenging situations.

Trading accuracy for speed over the course of a decision

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard Derosiere ◽  
David Thura ◽  
Paul Cisek ◽  
Julie Duqué
Keyword(s):  
Late Stage ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Unique Extension ◽  
Dynamic Changes ◽  
Performance Accuracy ◽  
Accuracy Criterion ◽  
Speed Accuracy ◽  
Accuracy Tradeoff

Humans and other animals often need to balance the desire to gather sensory information (to make the best choice) with the urgency to act, facing a speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT). Given the ubiquity of SAT across species, extensive research has been devoted to understanding the computational mechanisms allowing its regulation at different timescales, including from one context to another, and from one decision to another. However, animals must frequently change their SAT on even shorter timescales - i.e., over the course of an ongoing decision - and little is known about the mechanisms that allow such rapid adaptations. The present study aimed at addressing this issue. Human subjects performed a decision task with changing evidence. In this task, subjects received rewards for correct answers but incurred penalties for mistakes. An increase or a decrease in penalty occurring halfway through the trial promoted rapid SAT shifts, favoring speeded decisions either in the early or in the late stage of the trial. Importantly, these shifts were associated with stage-specific adjustments in the accuracy criterion exploited for committing to a choice. Those subjects who decreased the most their accuracy criterion at a given decision stage exhibited the highest gain in speed, but also the highest cost in terms of performance accuracy at that time. Altogether, the current findings offer a unique extension of previous work, by suggesting that dynamic changes in accuracy criterion allow the regulation of the SAT within the timescale of a single decision.

scholarly journals Adaptive integration of habits into depth-limited planning defines a habitual-goal–directed spectrum

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (45) ◽  
pp. 12868-12873 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Keramati ◽  
Peter Smittenaar ◽  
Raymond J. Dolan ◽  
Peter Dayan
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Process ◽  
Time Pressure ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Mental Simulation ◽  
Adaptive Integration ◽  
Accurate Evaluation ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Speed Accuracy ◽  
Accuracy Tradeoff

Behavioral and neural evidence reveal a prospective goal-directed decision process that relies on mental simulation of the environment, and a retrospective habitual process that caches returns previously garnered from available choices. Artificial systems combine the two by simulating the environment up to some depth and then exploiting habitual values as proxies for consequences that may arise in the further future. Using a three-step task, we provide evidence that human subjects use such a normative plan-until-habit strategy, implying a spectrum of approaches that interpolates between habitual and goal-directed responding. We found that increasing time pressure led to shallower goal-directed planning, suggesting that a speed-accuracy tradeoff controls the depth of planning with deeper search leading to more accurate evaluation, at the cost of slower decision-making. We conclude that subjects integrate habit-based cached values directly into goal-directed evaluations in a normative manner.

scholarly journals Tuning the speed-accuracy trade-off to maximize reward rate in multisensory decision-making

eLife ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Drugowitsch ◽  
Gregory C DeAngelis ◽  
Dora E Angelaki ◽  
Alexandre Pouget
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Time Pressure ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Neural Population ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Reward Rate ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Effective Decision Making ◽  
Speed Accuracy

For decisions made under time pressure, effective decision making based on uncertain or ambiguous evidence requires efficient accumulation of evidence over time, as well as appropriately balancing speed and accuracy, known as the speed/accuracy trade-off. For simple unimodal stimuli, previous studies have shown that human subjects set their speed/accuracy trade-off to maximize reward rate. We extend this analysis to situations in which information is provided by multiple sensory modalities. Analyzing previously collected data (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib4">Drugowitsch et al., 2014</xref>), we show that human subjects adjust their speed/accuracy trade-off to produce near-optimal reward rates. This trade-off can change rapidly across trials according to the sensory modalities involved, suggesting that it is represented by neural population codes rather than implemented by slow neuronal mechanisms such as gradual changes in synaptic weights. Furthermore, we show that deviations from the optimal speed/accuracy trade-off can be explained by assuming an incomplete gradient-based learning of these trade-offs.

scholarly journals A Relationship between Metabolism in Frontal Lobes and Cerebellum in Normal Subjects Studied with PET

1988 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 774-782 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry Junck ◽  
Sid Gilman ◽  
Jill R. Rothley ◽  
Annette T. Betley ◽  
Robert A. Koeppe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Cerebral Metabolism ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Normal Subjects ◽  
Oxygen Metabolism ◽  
Cerebellar Hemisphere ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
Positron Emission ◽  
Normal Human ◽  
Frontal Lesions

Lesions of one cerebral hemisphere are associated with decreased glucose metabolism, oxygen metabolism, and blood flow in the contralateral cerebellar hemisphere. We used positron emission tomography to look for a functional relationship in cerebral metabolism between the cerebral cortex and the contralateral cerebellum in normal human subjects. Twenty-four normal subjects were scanned with [18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose while in a resting state. Asymmetry in local CMRglu (LCMRglu) in the frontal cortex was strongly correlated with asymmetry in LCMRglu in the opposite direction in the cerebellar hemispheres ( r = −0.60, p < 0.001). Widespread subregions of the frontal cortex were found to contribute to this relationship. Considering these results together with previous studies demonstrating that frontal lesions are associated with decreased metabolism in the contralateral cerebellum, we conclude that the frontal cortex exerts a strong modulating influence on metabolism in the contralateral cerebellum in normal subjects, and that this influence may be asymmetrical.

Neurological and cognitive significance of probiotics: a holy grail deciding individual personality

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. 1059-1074
Author(s):  
Muhammad Afzal ◽  
Sayyeda Farwa Mazhar ◽  
Sadia Sana ◽  
Muhammad Naeem ◽  
Muhammad Hidayat Rasool ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Subjects ◽  
Human Microbiome ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Cognitive Significance ◽  
Individual Personality ◽  
Brain And Behavior ◽  
Mood And Cognition ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Brain

The role of the human microbiome in the brain and behavioral development is an area of increasing attention. Recent investigations have found that diverse mechanisms and signals including the immune, endocrine and neural associations are responsible for the communication between gut microbiota and the brain. The studies have suggested that alteration of intestinal microbiota using probiotic formulations may offer a significant role in the maturation and organization of the brain and can shape the brain and behavior as well as mood and cognition in human subjects. The understanding of the possible impact of gut microflora on neurological function is a promising phenomenon that can surely transform the neurosciences and may decipher the novel etiologies for neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders.

scholarly journals Dynamic changes in urgency over the course of a decision

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard Derosiere ◽  
David Thura ◽  
Paul Cisek ◽  
Julie Duque
Keyword(s):  
Late Stage ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Dynamic Environments ◽  
Unique Extension ◽  
Dynamic Changes ◽  
Decision Stage ◽  
Accuracy Criterion ◽  
Speed Accuracy ◽  
Accuracy Tradeoff

AbstractWhile making decisions, humans and other animals always need to balance the desire to gather sensory information (to make the best choice) with the urge to act, facing a speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT). Given the ubiquity of the SAT across species, extensive research has been devoted to understanding the computational mechanisms allowing its regulation at different timescales, including from one context to another, and from one decision to another. However, in dynamic environments, animals often need to change their SAT on even shorter timescales – i.e., over the course of an ongoing decision – and very little is known about the mechanisms that allow such rapid adaptations. The present study aimed at addressing this issue. Human subjects performed a modified version of the tokens task, where an increase or a decrease in penalty occurring halfway through the trial promoted rapid SAT shifts, favoring speeded decisions either in the early or in the late stage of the trial. Importantly, these shifts were associated with stage-specific adjustments in the accuracy criterion exploited for committing to a choice and relatedly, with dynamic, non-linear changes in urgency. Those subjects who decreased the most their accuracy criterion at a given decision stage presented the highest gain in speed, but also the highest cost in terms of accuracy at that time. Altogether, the current findings offer a unique extension of former work, by revealing that dynamic changes in urgency allow the regulation of the SAT within the timescale of a single decision.

Individual Differences in the Name Similarity Effect

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-118
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Howard ◽  
Roger A. Kerin
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Impression Management ◽  
Interactive Effect ◽  
Purchase Intentions ◽  
Brand Attitude ◽  
Self Monitoring ◽  
Similarity Effect ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Usage Context

The name similarity effect is the tendency to like people, places, and things with names similar to our own. Although many researchers have examined name similarity effects on preferences and behavior, no research to date has examined whether individual differences exist in susceptibility to those effects. This research reports the results of two experiments that examine the role of self-monitoring in moderating name similarity effects. In the first experiment, name similarity effects on brand attitude and purchase intentions were found to be stronger for respondents high, rather than low, in self-monitoring. In the second experiment, the interactive effect observed in the first study was found to be especially true in a public (vs. private) usage context. These findings are consistent with theoretical expectations of name similarity effects as an expression of egotism manifested in the image and impression management concerns of high self-monitors.

Dual Goals for Speed and Accuracy on the Same Performance Task

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 118-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olive Emil Wetter ◽  
Jürgen Wegge ◽  
Klaus Jonas ◽  
Klaus-Helmut Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Memory Scanning ◽  
Performance Task ◽  
Performance Tasks ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Test Experiment ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
New Finding ◽  
Sternberg Paradigm ◽  
Speed Accuracy ◽  
Speed And Accuracy

In most work contexts, several performance goals coexist, and conflicts between them and trade-offs can occur. Our paper is the first to contrast a dual goal for speed and accuracy with a single goal for speed on the same task. The Sternberg paradigm (Experiment 1, n = 57) and the d2 test (Experiment 2, n = 19) were used as performance tasks. Speed measures and errors revealed in both experiments that dual as well as single goals increase performance by enhancing memory scanning. However, the single speed goal triggered a speed-accuracy trade-off, favoring speed over accuracy, whereas this was not the case with the dual goal. In difficult trials, dual goals slowed down scanning processes again so that errors could be prevented. This new finding is particularly relevant for security domains, where both aspects have to be managed simultaneously.

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