Uncertainty-dependent activity within the ventral striatum predicts task-related changes in response strategy

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Decision Science

Background:

• The ventral striatum (VS) encodes confidence in perceptual decisions.
• It's unclear if perceptual uncertainty drives behavioral adaptation and if this relates to VS activity.
• Behavioral strategy changes after errors involve the medial frontal cortex (MFC) and VS.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate the link between perceptual uncertainty and behavioral adaptations (slowing, accuracy).
• Examine the relationship between these adaptations and brain activity in MFC and VS.
• Determine if uncertainty signals the need for behavioral adjustments via the performance-monitoring network.

Main Methods:

• Participants performed a two-choice decision task reporting perceptual uncertainty.
• Behavioral data (response time, accuracy) and event-related fMRI data were collected.
• Analysis focused on the impact of uncertainty on subsequent behavior and neural activity.

Main Results:

• Uncertain responses led to subsequent response slowing and increased accuracy.
• Post-uncertainty slowing negatively correlated with VS activity during uncertain trials.
• MFC activation increased with uncertainty, but did not correlate with post-uncertainty slowing.

Conclusions:

• Perceptual uncertainty acts as a signal for adaptive response strategies.
• Behavioral adaptations following uncertainty are closely linked to ventral striatum (VS) activity.
• The VS plays a crucial role in modulating behavior based on perceptual uncertainty.