Closed-loop readout of anterior insula high-gamma activity steers value-based decisions

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Decision Science
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Human choice variability is a long-standing puzzle in decision-making research.
• Spontaneous neural activity fluctuations may underlie behavioral variability across cognitive domains.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the causal role of spontaneous neural activity in the anterior insula on decision-making.
• To examine how fluctuations in broadband gamma activity (BGA) influence accept/reject choices.

Main Methods:

• Development of a closed-loop intracranial brain-computer interface.
• Detection of transient BGA fluctuations (70-150 Hz) to trigger stimuli.
• Presentation of multi-attribute offers (pleasant/unpleasant components) contingent on neural states.

Main Results:

• High BGA in the anterior insula preceded a transient suppression of neural activity.
• This neural state biased decisions toward accepting an unpleasant item for a pleasant one.
• Sub-second endogenous neural fluctuations were shown to directly modulate choice behavior.

Conclusions:

• Intrinsic brain states critically shape decision variability.
• Findings challenge current neuro-computational models by highlighting the role of neural fluctuations.
• Spontaneous neural activity is a direct modulator of complex choice behavior.