Distinct neural contributions to metacognition for detecting, but not discriminating visual stimuli.

Matan Mazor,Stephen M Fleming,Karl J Friston

doi:10.7554/elife.53900

Matan Mazor, Stephen M Fleming + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.53900

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Abstract

Being confident in whether a stimulus is present or absent (a detection judgment) is qualitatively distinct from being confident in the identity of that stimulus (a discrimination judgment). In particular, in detection, evidence can only be available for the presence, not the absence, of a target object. This asymmetry suggests that higher-order cognitive and neural processes may be required for confidence in detection, and more specifically, in judgments about absence. In a within-subject, pre-registered and performance-matched fMRI design, we observed quadratic confidence effects in frontopolar cortex for detection but not discrimination. Furthermore, in the right temporoparietal junction, confidence effects were enhanced for judgments of target absence compared to judgments of target presence. We interpret these findings as reflecting qualitative differences between a neural basis for metacognitive evaluation of detection and discrimination, potentially in line with counterfactual or higher-order models of confidence formation in detection.

Highlights

When foraging for berries, one first needs to decide whether a certain bush bears fruit or not
In addition to an exploratory whole-brain analysis, our analysis focused on the following a priori regions of interest, largely following the regions of interests (ROIs) used by Fleming et al (2018): 1. Frontopolar cortex (FPC, defined anatomically)
We find a quadratic effect of confidence in detection judgments in several brain regions, including the frontopolar cortex and the right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ)

Summary

Introduction

When foraging for berries, one first needs to decide whether a certain bush bears fruit or not. The first is a detection task: a decision about whether something is there or not, and the second is a discrimination task: a decision about which item is there. For these types of decisions, it is important to understand the decision process that leads to deciding present or absent, or raspberries or blackberries, and our ability to reflect on and estimate the quality of the decision, known as metacognition. Neuropsychological data in humans suggests that damage or impairment of prefrontal function can lead

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