Decision ambiguity is mediated by a late positive potential originating from cingulate cortex.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuroimaging
• Decision Science

Background:

• Making decisions with incomplete information is common, yet neural mechanisms of ambiguity remain unclear.
• Understanding how the brain represents and processes ambiguous information is critical for cognitive science.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural representation of perceptual decisions under ambiguity.
• To identify brain activity patterns associated with processing ambiguous stimuli during choice-making.

Main Methods:

• Combined electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
• Utilized three types of ambiguous stimuli.
• Employed mediation analyses and control experiments to isolate decision-related activity.

Main Results:

• Identified a late positive potential (LPP) that differentiated ambiguity levels.
• LPP was associated with ambiguous choices, not passive perception.
• Source modeling indicated LPP originates from the cingulate cortex.

Conclusions:

• The LPP from the cingulate cortex plays a role in encoding decisions based on perceptual ambiguity.
• This process may influence confidence, conflict, and error correction.
• Findings provide insight into the neural basis of decision-making under uncertainty.