Dissociable neural mechanisms track evidence accumulation for selection of attention versus action

Belief inference for hierarchical hidden states in spatial navigation

Uncertainty abounds in the real world, and in environments with multiple layers of unobservable hidden states, decision-making requires resolving uncertainties based on mutual inference. Focusing on a spatial navigation problem, we develop a Tiger maze task that involved simultaneously inferring the local hidden state and the global hidden state from probabilistically uncertain observation. We adopt a Bayesian computational approach by proposing a hierarchical inference model. Applying this to human task behaviour, alongside functional magnetic resonance brain imaging, allows us to separate the neural correlates associated with reinforcement and reassessment of belief in hidden states. The imaging results also suggest that different layers of uncertainty differentially involve the basal ganglia and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, and that the regions responsible are organised along the rostral axis of these areas according to the type of inference and the level of abstraction of the hidden state, i.e. higher-order state inference involves more anterior parts.

Orthogonal neural encoding of targets and distractors supports multivariate cognitive control

The complex challenges of our mental life require us to coordinate multiple forms of neural information processing. Recent behavioural studies have found that people can coordinate multiple forms of attention, but the underlying neural control process remains obscure. We hypothesized that the brain implements multivariate control by independently monitoring feature-specific difficulty and independently prioritizing feature-specific processing. During functional MRI, participants performed a parametric conflict task that separately tags target and distractor processing. Consistent with feature-specific monitoring, univariate analyses revealed spatially segregated encoding of target and distractor difficulty in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Consistent with feature-specific attentional priority, our encoding geometry analysis revealed overlapping but orthogonal representations of target and distractor coherence in the intraparietal sulcus. Coherence representations were mediated by control demands and aligned with both performance and frontoparietal activity, consistent with top-down attention. Together, these findings provide evidence for the neural geometry necessary to coordinate multivariate cognitive control.

Task performance errors and rewards affect voluntary task choices

Humans are remarkably flexible in adapting their behavior to current demands. It has been suggested that the decision which of multiple tasks to perform is based on a variety of factors pertaining to the rewards associated with each task as well as task performance (e.g., error rates associated with each task and/or error commission on the previous trial). However, further empirical investigation is needed to examine whether task performance still influences task choices if task choices are rewarded but task performance is not. Accordingly, we exposed participants to a novel reward-varying voluntary task switching paradigm where the reward for the performed task gradually decreased while the reward associated for the alternative task was unchanged. Importantly, we rewarded participants' task choices before participants performed the task to investigate the effect of rewards independent from task performance. We examined the effect of (i) reward, (ii) error rates associated with each of the two tasks, and (iii) error commission in the previous trial on voluntary task choices. As expected, we found that participants' task selection was influenced by reward differences between task choices. In addition, error rates associated with a task also influenced task selection, with participants requiring larger reward differences to switch to a task associated with relatively higher error rates, compared to switching to a task with relatively lower error rates. However, errors in n - 1 did not influence participants' probability to switch to the alternative task. These findings contribute to an ongoing discussion on the influence of task performance on task selection.

Humans reconfigure target and distractor processing to address distinct task demands

When faced with distraction, we can focus more on goal-relevant information (targets) or focus less on goal-conflicting information (distractors). How people use cognitive control to distribute attention across targets and distractors remains unclear. We address this question by developing a novel Parametric Attentional Control Task that can "tag" participants' sensitivity to target and distractor information. We use these precise measures of attention to develop a novel process model that can explain how participants control attention toward targets and distractors. Across three experiments, we find that participants met the demands of this task by independently controlling their processing of target and distractor information, exhibiting distinct adaptations to manipulations of incentives and conflict. Whereas incentives preferentially led to target enhancement, conflict in the previous trial preferentially led to distractor suppression. These distinct drivers of control altered sensitivity to targets and distractors early in the trial, promptly followed by reactive reconfiguration toward task-appropriate feature sensitivity. To provide a process-level account of these empirical findings, we develop a novel neural network model of evidence accumulation with attractor dynamics over feature weights that reconfigure target and distractor processing. These results provide a computational account of control reconfiguration that provides new insights into how multivariate attentional signals are optimized to achieve task goals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The effect of memory load on object reconstruction: Insights from an online mouse-tracking task

Why can't we remember everything that we experience? Previous work in the domain of object memory has suggested that our ability to resolve interference between relevant and irrelevant object features may limit how much we can remember at any given moment. Here, we developed an online mouse-tracking task to study how memory load influences object reconstruction, testing participants synchronously over virtual conference calls. We first tested up to 18 participants concurrently, replicating memory findings from a condition where participants were tested individually. Next, we examined how memory load influenced mouse trajectories as participants reconstructed target objects. We found interference between the contents of working memory and what was perceived during object reconstruction, an effect that interacted with visual similarity and memory load. Furthermore, we found interference from previously studied but currently irrelevant objects, providing evidence of object-to-location binding errors. At the greatest memory load, participants were nearly three times more likely to move their mouse cursor over previously studied nontarget objects, an effect observed primarily during object reconstruction rather than in the period before the final response. As evidence of the dynamic interplay between working memory and perception, these results show that object reconstruction behavior may be altered by (i) interference between what is represented in mind and what is currently being viewed, and (ii) interference from previously studied but currently irrelevant information. Finally, we discuss how mouse tracking can provide a rich characterization of participant behavior at millisecond temporal resolution, enormously increasing power in cognitive psychology experiments.

Task state representations in vmPFC mediate relevant and irrelevant value signals and their behavioral influence

The ventromedial prefrontal-cortex (vmPFC) is known to contain expected value signals that inform our choices. But expected values even for the same stimulus can differ by task. In this study, we asked how the brain flexibly switches between such value representations in a task-dependent manner. Thirty-five participants alternated between tasks in which either stimulus color or motion predicted rewards. We show that multivariate vmPFC signals contain a rich representation that includes the current task state or context (motion/color), the associated expected value, and crucially, the irrelevant value of the alternative context. We also find that irrelevant value representations in vmPFC compete with relevant value signals, interact with task-state representations and relate to behavioral signs of value competition. Our results shed light on vmPFC's role in decision making, bridging between its role in mapping observations onto the task states of a mental map, and computing expected values for multiple states.

Conceptualisation of Uncertainty in Decision Neuroscience Research: Do We Really Know What Types of Uncertainties The Measured Neural Correlates Relate To?

In the article "What are neural correlates neural correlates of?" published in the journal BioSocieties, Gabriel Abend points out that neuroscientists cannot avoid philosophical questions concerning the conceptualization and operationalization of social-psychological phenomena they deal with at the physiological level. In this article, we build on Abend's thesis and, through a systematic literature review of decision neuroscience studies, test it with the example of the social-psychological phenomenon of uncertainty in decision making. In this paper, we provide an overview of studies that appropriately attempt to conceptualise uncertainty, and then use these studies to analyse papers looking for neural correlates of uncertainty. Based on a systematic review of studies, we investigate what types of uncertainty authors in the field of decision neuroscience address and define, what criteria they use to distinguish between these types, what problems are associated with their conceptualization, and whether the neural correlates of different types of uncertainty can be accurately identified. The paper concludes that, particularly in the economic context, a collaboration between the natural and social sciences works well, and neuroscience studies use economic conceptualizations of uncertainty that are further developed by sophisticated decision tasks. However, the paper also highlights problematic aspects that obscure the understanding of the phenomena under study. These include the lack of criteria for distinguishing between different types of phenomena, the unclear use of the general concept of uncertainty, and the confusion of phenomena or their erroneous synonymous use.

A random-object-kinematogram plugin for web-based research: implementing oriented objects enables varying coherence levels and stimulus congruency levels

One of the recent major advances in cognitive psychology research has been the option of web-based in addition to lab-based experimental research. This option fosters experimental research by increasing the pace and size of collecting data sets. Importantly, web-based research profits heavily from integrating tasks that are frequently applied in cognitive psychology into open access software. For instance, an open access random-dot kinematogram (RDK) plugin has recently been integrated into the jsPsych software for web-based research. This plugin allows researchers to implement experimental tasks with varying coherence levels (with that varying task difficulty) of moving dots or varying signal to noise ratios of colored dots. Here, we introduce the random-object kinematogram (ROK) plugin for the jsPsych software which, among other new features, enables researchers to include oriented objects (e.g., triangles or arrows) instead of dots as stimuli. This permits experiments with feature congruency (e.g., upwards-moving triangles pointing upwards) or incongruency (e.g., upwards-moving triangles pointing downwards), allowing to induce gradual degrees of stimulus interference, in addition to gradual degrees of task difficulty. We elaborate on possible set-ups with this plugin in two experiments examining participants' RTs and error rates on different combinations of coherence and congruency levels. Results showed increased RTs and error rates on trials with lower coherence percentages, and on trials with lower congruency levels. We discuss other new features of the ROK plugin and conclude that the possibility of gradually varying the coherence level and congruency level independently from each other offers novel possibilities when conducting web-based experiments.

Contribution of the sensorimotor beta oscillations and the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic circuitry during value-based decision making: A simultaneous EEG-fMRI investigation

In decision neuroscience, the motor system has primarily been considered to be involved in executing choice actions. However, a competing perspective suggests its engagement in the evaluation of options, traditionally considered to be performed by the brain's valuation system. Here, we investigate the role of the motor system in value-based decision making by determining the neural circuitries associated with the sensorimotor beta oscillations previously identified to encode decision options. In a simultaneous EEG-fMRI study, participants evaluated reward and risk associated with a forthcoming action. A significant sensorimotor beta desynchronization was identified prior to and independent of response. The level of beta desynchronization showed evidence of encoding the reward levels. This beta desynchronization covaried, on a trial-by-trial level, with BOLD activity in the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic circuitry. In contrast, there was only a weak covariation within the valuation network, despite significant modulation of its BOLD activity by reward levels. These results suggest that the way in which decision variables are processed differs in the valuation network and in the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic circuitry. We propose that sensorimotor beta oscillations indicate incentive motivational drive towards a choice action computed from the decision variables even prior to making a response, and it arises from the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic circuitry.

Perceptual processing demands influence voluntary task choice

Previous studies have suggested that people are sensitive to anticipated cognitive processing demands when deciding which task to perform, but the influence of perceptual processing demands on voluntary task choice is still unclear. The present study tested whether voluntary task choice behavior may be influenced by unpredictable task-specific perceptual processing demands. Across four experiments using different voluntary task choice procedures, we randomly varied the perceptual discriminability of stimuli (easy vs. hard color discrimination) for one of the two tasks. We reasoned that people could only reactively adjust their task choice behavior to the unpredictable discriminability manipulation if they engaged in some perceptual processing before a task goal becomes sufficiently activated to select the task for further processing. The results confirmed this hypothesis: Task performance data demonstrated the presence of perceptual (discriminability effects) and cognitive (switch costs) processing demands. Participants' choice behavior was affected by both types of processing demands (as reflected in a task repetition bias and a bias to select the color task with easy compared to hard discriminations). Thus, the present findings indicate that both perceptual and cognitive processing demands influence voluntary task choice behavior. We propose that higher-level goal activations interact at least partially with early perceptual processes to influence task choice behavior, suggesting a locus of voluntary choices during or after the perceptual stage within the information-processing stream.

Distinctive roles of mPFC subregions in forming impressions and guiding social interaction based on others' social behaviour

People can quickly form impressions of others from their social behaviour, which can guide their future social interactions. This study investigated how the type and timing of others' social decisions affect the impression formation and social interactions. In each trial, participants watched a responder's decision in an ultimatum game, decided whether to choose the responder as their next partner for proposer or responder and reported the perceived warmth, competence and likability of the responder. Participants preferred responders who accepted (i.e. accepters) unfair offers for the responder and those who rejected (i.e. rejecters) unfair offers for the proposer in their next ultimatum game, and the rostral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activity encoded such a strategic context-dependent valuation when choosing partners. Slow rejecters were perceived as warmer than fast rejecters, which was mirrored by the anterior mid-cingulate cortex activity when watching others' decisions, possibly detecting and resolving conflicting impressions. Finally, those who perceived accepters vs rejecters as warmer showed higher ventral mPFC responses to accepters vs rejecters when choosing a partner, regardless of the context. The present study suggests that distinctive subregions of the mPFC may be differentially involved in forming impressions and guiding social interactions with others based on their social behaviours.

Cortical asymmetries at different spatial hierarchies relate to phonological processing ability

The ability to map speech sounds to corresponding letters is critical for establishing proficient reading. People vary in this phonological processing ability, which has been hypothesized to result from variation in hemispheric asymmetries within brain regions that support language. A cerebral lateralization hypothesis predicts that more asymmetric brain structures facilitate the development of foundational reading skills like phonological processing. That is, structural asymmetries are predicted to linearly increase with ability. In contrast, a canalization hypothesis predicts that asymmetries constrain behavioral performance within a normal range. That is, structural asymmetries are predicted to quadratically relate to phonological processing, with average phonological processing occurring in people with the most asymmetric structures. These predictions were examined in relatively large samples of children (N = 424) and adults (N = 300), using a topological asymmetry analysis of T1-weighted brain images and a decoding measure of phonological processing. There was limited evidence of structural asymmetry and phonological decoding associations in classic language-related brain regions. However, and in modest support of the cerebral lateralization hypothesis, small to medium effect sizes were observed where phonological decoding accuracy increased with the magnitude of the largest structural asymmetry across left hemisphere cortical regions, but not right hemisphere cortical regions, for both the adult and pediatric samples. In support of the canalization hypothesis, small to medium effect sizes were observed where phonological decoding in the normal range was associated with increased asymmetries in specific cortical regions for both the adult and pediatric samples, which included performance monitoring and motor planning brain regions that contribute to oral and written language functions. Thus, the relevance of each hypothesis to phonological decoding may depend on the scale of brain organization.

Filling the gaps: Cognitive control as a critical lens for understanding mechanisms of value-based decision-making

While often seeming to investigate rather different problems, research into value-based decision making and cognitive control have historically offered parallel insights into how people select thoughts and actions. While the former studies how people weigh costs and benefits to make a decision, the latter studies how they adjust information processing to achieve their goals. Recent work has highlighted ways in which decision-making research can inform our understanding of cognitive control. Here, we provide the complementary perspective: how cognitive control research has informed understanding of decision-making. We highlight three particular areas of research where this critical interchange has occurred: (1) how different types of goals shape the evaluation of choice options, (2) how people use control to adjust the ways they make their decisions, and (3) how people monitor decisions to inform adjustments to control at multiple levels and timescales. We show how adopting this alternate viewpoint offers new insight into the determinants of both decisions and control; provides alternative interpretations for common neuroeconomic findings; and generates fruitful directions for future research.

Meta-control of the exploration-exploitation dilemma emerges from probabilistic inference over a hierarchy of time scales

Cognitive control is typically understood as a set of mechanisms that enable humans to reach goals that require integrating the consequences of actions over longer time scales. Importantly, using routine behaviour or making choices beneficial only at short time scales would prevent one from attaining these goals. During the past two decades, researchers have proposed various computational cognitive models that successfully account for behaviour related to cognitive control in a wide range of laboratory tasks. As humans operate in a dynamic and uncertain environment, making elaborate plans and integrating experience over multiple time scales is computationally expensive. Importantly, it remains poorly understood how uncertain consequences at different time scales are integrated into adaptive decisions. Here, we pursue the idea that cognitive control can be cast as active inference over a hierarchy of time scales, where inference, i.e., planning, at higher levels of the hierarchy controls inference at lower levels. We introduce the novel concept of meta-control states, which link higher-level beliefs with lower-level policy inference. Specifically, we conceptualize cognitive control as inference over these meta-control states, where solutions to cognitive control dilemmas emerge through surprisal minimisation at different hierarchy levels. We illustrate this concept using the exploration-exploitation dilemma based on a variant of a restless multi-armed bandit task. We demonstrate that beliefs about contexts and meta-control states at a higher level dynamically modulate the balance of exploration and exploitation at the lower level of a single action. Finally, we discuss the generalisation of this meta-control concept to other control dilemmas.

On the functional role of striatal and anterior cingulate GABA+ in stimulus-response binding

Successful response selection relies on constantly updating stimulus-response associations. The Theory of Event Coding (TEC) proposes that perception and action are conjointly coded in event files, for which fronto-striatal networks seem to play an important role. However, the exact neurobiochemical mechanism behind event file coding has remained unknown. We investigated the functional relevance of the striatal and anterior cingulate (ACC) GABAergic system using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Specifically, the striatal and ACC concentrations of GABA+ referenced against N-acetylaspartate (NAA) were assessed in 35 young healthy males, who subsequently performed a standard event file task. As predicted by the TEC, the participants' responses were modulated by pre-established stimulus response bindings in event files. GABA+/NAA concentrations in the striatum and ACC were not correlated with the overall event binding effect. However, higher GABA+/NAA concentrations in the ACC were correlated with stronger event file binding processes in the early phase of the task. This association disappeared by the end of the task. Taken together, our findings show that striatal GABA+ levels does not seem to modulate event file binding, while ACC GABA+ seem to improve event file binding, but only as long as the participants have not yet gathered sufficient task experience. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study providing direct evidence for the role of striatal and ACC GABA+ in stimulus-response bindings and thus insights into the brain structure-specific neurobiological aspects of the TEC.

The Best Laid Plans: Computational Principles of Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Despite continual debate for the past 30 years about the function of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), its key contribution to neurocognition remains unknown. However, recent computational modeling work has provided insight into this question. Here we review computational models that illustrate three core principles of ACC function, related to hierarchy, world models, and cost. We also discuss four constraints on the neural implementation of these principles, related to modularity, binding, encoding, and learning and regulation. These observations suggest a role for ACC in hierarchical model-based hierarchical reinforcement learning (HMB-HRL), which instantiates a mechanism motivating the execution of high-level plans.

A neural network for information seeking

Humans and other animals often show a strong desire to know the uncertain rewards their future has in store, even when they cannot use this information to influence the outcome. However, it is unknown how the brain predicts opportunities to gain information and motivates this information-seeking behavior. Here we show that neurons in a network of interconnected subregions of primate anterior cingulate cortex and basal ganglia predict the moment of gaining information about uncertain rewards. Spontaneous increases in their information prediction signals are followed by gaze shifts toward objects associated with resolving uncertainty, and pharmacologically disrupting this network reduces the motivation to seek information. These findings demonstrate a cortico-basal ganglia mechanism responsible for motivating actions to resolve uncertainty by seeking knowledge about the future.

Animals resolve uncertainty by seeking knowledge about the future. How the brain controls this is unclear. The authors show that a network including primate anterior cingulate cortex and basal ganglia encodes opportunities to gain information about uncertain rewards and mediates information seeking.

Neural correlates of risk perception as a function of risk level: An approach to the study of risk through a daily life task

We are often required to make decisions that can have safe or risky consequences. Evaluating the risk of each possible alternative is an important step before making our final decision. The main goal of the present research was to explore the neural basis of risk perception in a naturalistic context (driving). Twenty-two drivers evaluated the perceived risk in 72 traffic situations (previously categorized by driving instructors) while brain activity was recorded using fMRI. A neural network involving attentional factors, emotional processing, stimulus-response associations, and risk aversion was related to the perception of risks. Given the nature of our task, a more prominent role was played by emotional factors (evaluation of the consequences) than cognitive factors (e.g. probabilistic calculations). Moreover, activation in the insula, inferior frontal gyrus, precentral/postcentral gyrus, inferior parietal gyrus, and temporal and occipital regions linearly increased as a function of risk level. Our findings provide a new step towards understanding the neural processing underlying risk behavior in daily life tasks, which is particularly relevant given the study context and its important practical implications for our society.