Identification and disruption of a neural mechanism for accumulating prospective metacognitive information prior to decision-making
Open accessAbstract
More than one type of probability must be considered when making decisions. It is as necessary to know one's chance of performing choices correctly as it is to know the chances that desired outcomes will follow choices. We refer to these two choice contingencies as internal and external probability. Neural activity across many frontal and parietal areas reflected internal and external probabilities in a similar manner during decision-making. However, neural recording and manipulation approaches suggest that one area, the anterior lateral prefrontal cortex (alPFC), is highly specialized for making prospective, metacognitive judgments on the basis of internal probability; it is essential for knowing which decisions to tackle, given its assessment of how well they will be performed. Its activity predicted prospective metacognitive judgments, and individual variation in activity predicted individual variation in metacognitive judgments. Its disruption altered metacognitive judgments, leading participants to tackle perceptual decisions they were likely to fail.
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Several areas of the human prefrontal cortex have been linked to metacognition and confidence in addition to goal maintenance.
“Several areas of the human prefrontal cortex have been linked to metacognition and confidence in addition to goal maintenance,7”
From Two prefrontal-subcortical circuits estimate controllability and reflect its impact on learning (2026) · cites this paper as [13]
The Discussion (page not provided) links the anterior lateral prefrontal cortex to prospective metacognition and the medial frontopolar cortex to confidence in perceptual decisions. It does not establish the sentence’s additional claim about goal maintenance. (LLM, conf=0.83)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredVariation in prospective confidence prior to even taking a decision determines which decision problems an individual attempts to solve in the first place.
“while variation in prospective confidence prior to even taking a decision determines which decision problems an individual attempts to solve in the first place.12”
From Two prefrontal-subcortical circuits estimate controllability and reflect its impact on learning (2026) · cites this paper as [13]
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- Authors
- Miyamoto, K., Trudel, N., Kamermans, K., Lim, M. C., Lazari, A., Verhagen, L., Wittmann, M. K., & Rushworth, M. F. S.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Miyamoto, Kentaro
- ORCID
- Venue
- Neuron
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-04
- Volume
- 109
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1396-1408.e7
- ISSN
- 0896-6273 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8063717
- OpenAlex
- W3139165825
- Cited by
- 45
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 6
- FWCI
- 3.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Neuron (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- ESRC
- JSPS
- Wellcome Trust
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Keywords
- metacognition, decision-making, neural mechanisms, individual differences, perceptual decision making, neural manipulation
- MeSH terms
- Metacognition, Adult, Brain Mapping, Female, Humans, Judgment, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Prospective Studies, Prefrontal Cortex, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
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