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Neural correlates, computation and behavioural impact of decision confidence

Author

Listed:
  • Adam Kepecs

    (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724, USA)

  • Naoshige Uchida

    (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724, USA
    Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA)

  • Hatim A. Zariwala

    (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724, USA
    Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, Washington 98103, USA)

  • Zachary F. Mainen

    (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724, USA
    Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciênçia)

Abstract

Confidence trick In decision-making, many factors affect the final choice, including ones degree of confidence in its correctness. Traditionally, such 'metacognition' has been thought to be the hallmark of self-consciousness and unique to primates. But Kepecs et al. now show that rats also appear to compute and use estimates of their own confidence when making difficult perceptual decisions. The rats received a reward when deciding correctly which of two odours in a mixture was the stronger. By varying the exact mixture of components, the difficulty of the decision could be adjusted. Neurons in the brain's orbitofrontal cortex fired much more vigorously in the difficult tests than in easy ones. This suggests that confidence estimation may be a fundamental and ubiquitous part of the decision-making process.

Suggested Citation

  • Adam Kepecs & Naoshige Uchida & Hatim A. Zariwala & Zachary F. Mainen, 2008. "Neural correlates, computation and behavioural impact of decision confidence," Nature, Nature, vol. 455(7210), pages 227-231, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:455:y:2008:i:7210:d:10.1038_nature07200
    DOI: 10.1038/nature07200
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Laurence Aitchison & Dan Bang & Bahador Bahrami & Peter E Latham, 2015. "Doubly Bayesian Analysis of Confidence in Perceptual Decision-Making," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-23, October.
    2. Marina Martinez-Garcia & Andrea Insabato & Mario Pannunzi & Jose L Pardo-Vazquez & Carlos Acuña & Gustavo Deco, 2015. "The Encoding of Decision Difficulty and Movement Time in the Primate Premotor Cortex," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(11), pages 1-25, November.
    3. Ronald H Stevens & Trysha L Galloway, 2022. "Can machine learning be used to forecast the future uncertainty of military teams?," The Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation, , vol. 19(2), pages 145-158, April.
    4. Wan-Yu Shih & Hsiang-Yu Yu & Cheng-Chia Lee & Chien-Chen Chou & Chien Chen & Paul W. Glimcher & Shih-Wei Wu, 2023. "Electrophysiological population dynamics reveal context dependencies during decision making in human frontal cortex," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-24, December.
    5. Eleanor Holton & Jan Grohn & Harry Ward & Sanjay G. Manohar & Jill X. O’Reilly & Nils Kolling, 2024. "Goal commitment is supported by vmPFC through selective attention," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 8(7), pages 1351-1365, July.
    6. Andrea Insabato & Mario Pannunzi & Gustavo Deco, 2017. "Multiple Choice Neurodynamical Model of the Uncertain Option Task," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(1), pages 1-29, January.
    7. Micha Heilbron & Florent Meyniel, 2019. "Confidence resets reveal hierarchical adaptive learning in humans," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(4), pages 1-24, April.
    8. Charlotte Caucheteux & Alexandre Gramfort & Jean-Rémi King, 2023. "Evidence of a predictive coding hierarchy in the human brain listening to speech," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(3), pages 430-441, March.
    9. Leopold Zizlsperger & Thomas Sauvigny & Thomas Haarmeier, 2012. "Selective Attention Increases Choice Certainty in Human Decision Making," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(7), pages 1-9, July.
    10. Manuel Rausch & Michael Zehetleitner, 2019. "The folded X-pattern is not necessarily a statistical signature of decision confidence," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(10), pages 1-18, October.
    11. Duarte S Viana & Isabel Gordo & Élio Sucena & Marta A P Moita, 2010. "Cognitive and Motivational Requirements for the Emergence of Cooperation in a Rat Social Game," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(1), pages 1-9, January.
    12. Florent Meyniel & Daniel Schlunegger & Stanislas Dehaene, 2015. "The Sense of Confidence during Probabilistic Learning: A Normative Account," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(6), pages 1-25, June.
    13. David Aguilar-Lleyda & Maxime Lemarchand & Vincent de Gardelle, 2020. "Confidence as a Priority Signal," Post-Print hal-02958760, HAL.
    14. Sebastian Bitzer & Jelle Bruineberg & Stefan J Kiebel, 2015. "A Bayesian Attractor Model for Perceptual Decision Making," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(8), pages 1-35, August.
    15. Mikhail Ordin & Dina Abdel Salam El-Dakhs & Ming Tao & Fengfeng Chu & Leona Polyanskaya, 2024. "Cultural influence on metacognition: comparison across three societies," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    16. Florent Meyniel, 2020. "Brain dynamics for confidence-weighted learning," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(6), pages 1-27, June.
    17. William T Adler & Wei Ji Ma, 2018. "Comparing Bayesian and non-Bayesian accounts of human confidence reports," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(11), pages 1-34, November.
    18. Johannes Rüter & Henning Sprekeler & Wulfram Gerstner & Michael H Herzog, 2013. "The Silent Period of Evidence Integration in Fast Decision Making," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(1), pages 1-7, January.

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