Direct stimulation of anterior insula and ventromedial prefrontal cortex disrupts economic choices

Abstract

Neural activities within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and anterior insula are associated with economic choices. However, whether these brain regions are causally related to these processes remains unclear. To address this issue, we leveraged rare intracerebral electrical stimulation (iES) data in epileptic patients. We show that opposite effects of iES on choice depend on the location of stimulation on a dorso-ventral axis within each area, thus demonstrating dissociable neural circuits causally involved in accepting versus avoiding challenges.

A functional overlap between evidence accumulation, confidence, and changes of mind in the pre-supplementary motor area and insula

“…This anatomical dissociation between pre- and post-decisional evidence accumulation was further supported by univariate analyses: channels instantiating evidence accumulation also encoded pre-decisional confidence in the pSMA and post-decisional confidence in the insula. Interestingly, in the context of decision-making, stimulating the insula has been found to have an effect on confidence (Cecchi et al, 2023). The insula has also been hypothesised to provide inputs to dorsomedial regions including the pSMA (Bastin et al, 2017), as well as to the OFC (Dhar et al, 2011; Pouget et al, 2016), another region found to reflect confidence in our own data.…”