You'd better think twice: post-decision perceptual confidence

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Metacognition

Background:

• Current understanding suggests confidence arises after decisions, but its temporal and neural dynamics are not fully understood.
• Distinguishing confidence judgments from decision-making processes is crucial for understanding metacognition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the temporal and neural dynamics of post-decision confidence.
• To differentiate the neural processes underlying confidence judgments from those of decision-making.

Main Methods:

• A tactile discrimination task was employed.
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to capture brain activity.
• Parametric analysis of fMRI data was conducted to distinguish neural patterns.

Main Results:

• Reaction times for post-decision confidence varied with confidence level, indicating non-parallel processing with decision-making.
• Confidence processing was localized to a prefrontal network, including anterior and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
• Decision-making and confidence processing may share dorsolateral prefrontal cortex resources but have distinct functions.

Conclusions:

• This is the first fMRI study to separate decision-making and post-decision confidence processes behaviorally, neuroanatomically, and neurofunctionally.
• Findings support recent theoretical models of perceptual decision-making and offer implications for future research on confidence.