Modeling brain dynamics and gaze behavior: Starting point bias and drift rate relate to frontal midline theta oscillations

Castagna, Peter J.; Noordt, Stefon van; Sederberg, Per B.; Crowley, Michael J.

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.119871

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Recent studies employing tasks involving conflict processing have used the hierarchical drift-diffusion model (HDDM; Wiecki et al, 2013) to introduce trial-specific variations in mid-frontal theta (MFT) activity. These studies have demonstrated its impact on various parameters influencing the choice process, such as the starting point, drift rate, and decision threshold (Guan et al, 2023;Castagna et al, 2023;Frank et al, 2015). These results are indeed promising, but they also highlight the challenges in identifying the specific roles of conflict-related MFT in shaping decision processes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

The role of conflict monitoring in overcoming value biases in human decision-making

Vidal,

Bote,

Soto-Faraco

2023

Preprint

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The value associated with response alternatives has been observed to impact rapid choices while slower decisions remain relatively unbiased. Here we aim to understand how the decision process is redirected towards goal-relevant evidence after the initial value prioritisation and propose that conflict detection and cognitive control serve as the underlying mechanism. We recorded electroencephalography (EEG) from participants performing a speeded binary choice task based on the price of realistic food stimuli that naturally also encompassed subjective preferences. Our findings indicate that preferred alternatives were consistency selected faster, irrespective of the amount of task-relevant information available and in the absence of any motor or attentional anticipation, suggesting fast automatic integration of value-based information. Furthermore, participants’ pre-existing mental representations of item prices and preferences influenced the degree of value biases on response accuracy. Consistent with our initial hypothesis, results show that in incongruent trials, where subjective value and objective information compete, mid-frontal theta (MFT) activity was heightened and predicted choice accuracy, indicating monitoring and detection of conflict. Additionally, our findings unveiled enhanced MFT power proportional to the potential cost opportunity of the choice and following errors, highlighting the implication of cognitive control in various aspects of decision-making. In essence, this study provides the foundation for comprehending how value-biases are overcame within the brain, while illustrating the need to use more ecological paradigms to better understand the multifaceted interactions characterising human behaviour in real-world scenarios.

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