Orbitofrontal Cortex Is Required for Optimal Waiting Based on Decision Confidence
Open accessAbstract
Confidence judgments are a central example of metacognition-knowledge about one's own cognitive processes. According to this metacognitive view, confidence reports are generated by a second-order monitoring process based on the quality of internal representations about beliefs. Although neural correlates of decision confidence have been recently identified in humans and other animals, it is not well understood whether there are brain areas specifically important for confidence monitoring. To address this issue, we designed a postdecision temporal wagering task in which rats expressed choice confidence by the amount of time they were willing to wait for reward. We found that orbitofrontal cortex inactivation disrupts waiting-based confidence reports without affecting decision accuracy. Furthermore, we show that a normative model can quantitatively account for waiting times based on the computation of decision confidence. These results establish an anatomical locus for a metacognitive report, confidence judgment, distinct from the processes required for perceptual decisions.
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Confidence-related behavior is impaired following inactivation of orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in rodents.
“and confidence-related behavior is impaired following inactivation of orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in rodents (Lak et al. 2014).”
From Metacognition and Confidence: A Review and Synthesis (2024) · cites this paper as Lak et al. 2014
Inactivation of OFC impairs metacognition but not performance.
“with inactivation of this brain area impairing metacognition but not performance (Lak et al. 2014).”
From Metacognition and Confidence: A Review and Synthesis (2024) · cites this paper as Lak et al. 2014
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- Authors
- Lak, A., Costa, G. M., Romberg, E., Koulakov, A. A., Mainen, Z. F., & Kepecs, A.
- Affiliations
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (US)
- Centro Champalimaud (PT)
- Venue
- Neuron
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-10
- Volume
- 84
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 190-201
- ISSN
- 0896-6273 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4364549
- OpenAlex
- W2119707473
- Cited by
- 209
- References
- 14
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 9.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Neuron (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Institutional Repository (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion)
- Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH097061)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA036913)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Keywords
- orbitofrontal cortex, decision confidence, metacognition, waiting time, neural inactivation, normative model, rats, perceptual decision making
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Choice Behavior, Decision Making, Male, Reaction Time, Prefrontal Cortex, Rats, Long-Evans, Rats
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