Motivational signals disrupt metacognitive signals in the human ventromedial prefrontal cortex

Hoven, M., Brunner, G., de Boer, N. S., Goudriaan, A. E., Denys, D., van Holst, R. J., Luigjes, J. and Lebreton, M. (2022) Motivational signals disrupt metacognitive signals in the human ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Communications Biology, 5, 244. (doi: 10.1038/s42003-022-03197-z) (PMID:35304877) (PMCID:PMC8933484)

Abstract

A growing body of evidence suggests that, during decision-making, BOLD signal in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) correlates both with motivational variables – such as incentives and expected values – and metacognitive variables – such as confidence judgments – which reflect the subjective probability of being correct. At the behavioral level, we recently demonstrated that the value of monetary stakes bias confidence judgments, with gain (respectively loss) prospects increasing (respectively decreasing) confidence judgments, even for similar levels of difficulty and performance. If and how this value-confidence interaction is reflected in the VMPFC remains unknown. Here, we used an incentivized perceptual decision-making fMRI task that dissociates key decision-making variables, thereby allowing to test several hypotheses about the role of the VMPFC in the value-confidence interaction. While our initial analyses seemingly indicate that the VMPFC combines incentives and confidence to form an expected value signal, we falsified this conclusion with a meticulous dissection of qualitative activation patterns. Rather, our results show that strong VMPFC confidence signals observed in trials with gain prospects are disrupted in trials with no – or negative (loss) – monetary prospects. Deciphering how decision variables are represented and interact at finer scales seems necessary to better understand biased (meta)cognition.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Data collection for this work was funded by two independent personal Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC) Talent grants to J.L. and R.v.H., and an NWO Veni Fellowship (grant 451-15-015) granted to M.L. M.L. is supported by a Swiss National Fund Ambizione Grant (PZ00P3_174127), J.L. is supported by an NWO VENI Fellowship grant (916-18-119).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Brunner, Gina
• Authors: Hoven, M., Brunner, G., de Boer, N. S., Goudriaan, A. E., Denys, D., van Holst, R. J., Luigjes, J., and Lebreton, M.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience
• Journal Name: Communications Biology
• Publisher: Nature Research
• ISSN: 2399-3642
• ISSN (Online): 2399-3642
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Communications Biology 5: 244
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License
• Data DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.19228977