Action-specific disruption of perceptual confidence

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Perception Research
• Motor Control

Background:

• Traditional models link perceptual confidence to sensory processing quality.
• The role of motor system involvement in confidence judgments remains less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the contribution of the motor system to perceptual confidence.
• To examine the effects of manipulating premotor cortex activity on confidence in visual discrimination tasks.

Main Methods:

• Utilized transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to disrupt premotor cortex representations.
• Conducted two experiments involving visual discrimination judgments and confidence ratings.
• Applied TMS both before and after response execution to assess timing effects.

Main Results:

• Disrupting motor representations in the premotor cortex selectively reduced post-response confidence.
• This reduction in confidence occurred without affecting visual discrimination performance.
• TMS effects on confidence were observed regardless of stimulation timing (pre- or post-response).

Conclusions:

• Perceptual confidence is not solely based on sensory processing; the motor system plays a significant role.
• Action-specific information in the premotor cortex contributes to metacognitive judgments of confidence.
• Findings suggest confidence relies on late-stage metacognitive processes involving motor representations.