The neural system of metacognition accompanying decision-making in the prefrontal cortex

Abstract

Decision-making is usually accompanied by metacognition, through which a decision maker monitors uncertainty regarding a decision and may then consequently revise the decision. These metacognitive processes can occur prior to or in the absence of feedback. However, the neural mechanisms of metacognition remain controversial. One theory proposes an independent neural system for metacognition in the prefrontal cortex (PFC); the other, that metacognitive processes coincide and overlap with the systems used for the decision-making process per se. In this study, we devised a novel “decision–redecision” paradigm to investigate the neural metacognitive processes involved in redecision as compared to the initial decision-making process. The participants underwent a perceptual decision-making task and a rule-based decision-making task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We found that the anterior PFC, including the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and lateral frontopolar cortex (lFPC), were more extensively activated after the initial decision. The dACC activity in redecision positively scaled with decision uncertainty and correlated with individual metacognitive uncertainty monitoring abilities—commonly occurring in both tasks—indicating that the dACC was specifically involved in decision uncertainty monitoring. In contrast, the lFPC activity seen in redecision processing was scaled with decision uncertainty reduction and correlated with individual accuracy changes—positively in the rule-based decision-making task and negatively in the perceptual decision-making task. Our results show that the lFPC was specifically involved in metacognitive control of decision adjustment and was subject to different control demands of the tasks. Therefore, our findings support that a separate neural system in the PFC is essentially involved in metacognition and further, that functions of the PFC in metacognition are dissociable.

Disruptions of frontoparietal control network and default mode network linking the metacognitive deficits with clinical symptoms in schizophrenia

“…We employed the “decision‐redecision” paradigm that detailed in a previous study (Qiu et al, ). Briefly, the subject was instructed to make an initial decision regarding the moving direction of a random‐dot‐motion (RDM) stimulus (decision phase), and then was required to immediately make a second decision on the same stimulus (redecision phase).…”

“…In contrast, when the decision uncertainty is high, the metacognitive processes should be evoked to revise the preceding decision. Several recent studies using functional MRI (fMRI) in simple perceptual decision‐making tasks have shown that the frontoparietal control network (FPCN) and the salience network (SN) are associated with metacognition accompanying the decision‐making task in the population of HC (Fleming et al, ; Morales et al, ; Qiu et al, ; Wan, Cheng, & Tanaka, ). The fMRI activities in these regions increase as decision uncertainty increases.…”

“…Specifically, the fMRI activities in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) positively scale with individual metacognitive ability of uncertainty monitoring (Qiu et al, ). Furthermore, the same network is also involved in metacognitive control of decision adjustment (Qiu et al, ; Wan et al, ). Therefore, metacognition is associated with the FPCN and SN, together referred to as “the metacognition network” (MCN).…”

“…However, reduction of the DMN suppression could be induced by hypo‐activity in the MCN in SZ, as the DMN activity always anticorrelates with the MCN activity (Fox, Snyder, Vincent, Corbetta, & Raichle, ; Gusnard & Raichle, ). The DMN regions are proportionally suppressed while the MCN regions are activated during metacognition (Qiu et al, ). Indeed, the DMN suppression is even elevated in some SZ patients (Harrison, Yücel, Pujol, & Pantelis, ; Mannell et al, ).…”

“…While the MCN and DMN are proposed as the preferential networks showing disruptions in SZ (Anticevic et al, ; Yang et al, ), thus far, no study has articulated the critical feature of the two networks that reliably associate with clinical symptoms. Utilizing an established experimental paradigm of a simple perceptual decision‐making task (Qiu et al, ), our goals in this study were to test the two hypotheses in SZ: (a) suppression of activities in both the MCN and DMN is associated with the metacognitive deficit in decision uncertainty monitoring, and (b) alternations of the two disrupted networks are associated with clinical symptoms.…”