Psychiatrically relevant signatures of domain-general decision-making and metacognition in the general population

Benwell, C. S.Y., Mohr, G., Wallberg, J., Kouadio, A. and Ince, R. A.A. (2022) Psychiatrically relevant signatures of domain-general decision-making and metacognition in the general population. npj Mental Health Research, 1(1), 10. (doi: 10.1038/s44184-022-00009-4)

Abstract

Human behaviours are guided by how confident we feel in our abilities. When confidence does not reflect objective performance, this can impact critical adaptive functions and impair life quality. Distorted decision-making and confidence have been associated with mental health problems. Here, utilising advances in computational and transdiagnostic psychiatry, we sought to map relationships between psychopathology and both decision-making and confidence in the general population across two online studies (N’s = 344 and 473, respectively). The results revealed dissociable decision-making and confidence signatures related to distinct symptom dimensions. A dimension characterised by compulsivity and intrusive thoughts was found to be associated with reduced objective accuracy but, paradoxically, increased absolute confidence, whereas a dimension characterized by anxiety and depression was associated with systematically low confidence in the absence of impairments in objective accuracy. These relationships replicated across both studies and distinct cognitive domains (perception and general knowledge), suggesting that they are reliable and domain general. Additionally, whereas Big-5 personality traits also predicted objective task performance, only symptom dimensions related to subjective confidence. Domain-general signatures of decision-making and metacognition characterise distinct psychological dispositions and psychopathology in the general population and implicate confidence as a central component of mental health.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: C.S.Y.B. was supported by the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust and the United Kingdom Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [SRG19/191169]. C.S.Y.B. and A.K. were supported by an Undergraduate Research Assistantship Award from the British Psychological Society (BPS). R.A.A.I. was supported by the Wellcome Trust [214120/Z/18/Z]. G.M. was supported by the United Kingdom Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) [EP/R513222/1].
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Ince, Dr Robin and Mohr, Greta
• Authors: Benwell, C. S.Y., Mohr, G., Wallberg, J., Kouadio, A., and Ince, R. A.A.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences; College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience
• Journal Name: npj Mental Health Research
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• ISSN: 2731-4251
• ISSN (Online): 2731-4251
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Authors
• First Published: First published in npj Mental Health Research 1(1):10
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons license

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
304240		Beyond Pairwise Connectivity: developing an information theoretic hypergraph methodology for multi-modal resting state neuroimaging analysis	Robin Ince	Wellcome Trust (WELLCOTR)	214120/Z/18/Z	Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging
305200		DTP 2018-19 University of Glasgow	Mary Beth Kneafsey	Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)	EP/R513222/1	MVLS - Graduate School