Uncertainty and confidence from the triple-network perspective: voxel-based meta-analyses

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neuroscience

Background:

• Subjective confidence and objective certainty are related but distinct cognitive processes.
• Previous neuroimaging studies often investigated confidence and uncertainty in isolation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify brain regions modulated by environmental uncertainty.
• To identify brain regions modulated by subjective confidence.
• To differentiate neural correlates of confidence and uncertainty.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of blood oxygenation-level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD fMRI) literature.
• Voxel-based meta-analysis categorized by task requirements.
• Meta-analyses to assess activation consistency between judgment types.

Main Results:

• Increased uncertainty consistently activated salience network (anterior cingulate cortex, insula) and central executive network (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, posterior parietal cortex).
• Subjective confidence robustly correlated with default mode network (midline cortical, medial temporal lobe) activity.
• Right parahippocampal gyrus showed modulation by both certainty and confidence, with stronger links to confidence magnitude.

Conclusions:

• Distinct neural networks underpin environmental uncertainty and subjective confidence.
• The default mode network is implicated in subjective confidence, while salience and executive networks relate to uncertainty.
• Findings inform future research on the neural basis of metacognitive judgments.