Decoding Confidence in Future Event: EEG Markers of Prospective Confidence in Perceptual and Memory Tasks

This study analyzed the neural mechanisms of prospective confidence using electroencephalography (EEG). In EEG experiment, participants who were presented a cue related to task difficulty responded the prospective confidence to the upcoming task. We found some EEG markers related to prospective confidence across multiple tasks (perception and memory). One marker is P300-The amplitude in the prefrontal region increased for high confidence. The second marker is functional connectivities in alpha and beta frequency bands that were significantly different. The findings suggest that prospective confidence is not merely a subjective prediction of future task outcomes, but also serves as a critical component of metacognition, reflecting dynamic regulatory processes of self-awareness and cognitive control.