Cited by 57Memory and Neural MechanismsNeural dynamics and brain functionNeural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

Studying the neural representations of uncertainty

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Walker, Edgar Y., Pohl, Stephan, Denison, Rachel N., Barack, David L., Lee, Jennifer, Block, Ned, Ma, Wei Ji, Meyniel, Florent·2023·Nature Neuroscience

Abstract

The study of the brain's representations of uncertainty is a central topic in neuroscience. Unlike most quantities of which the neural representation is studied, uncertainty is a property of an observer's beliefs about the world, which poses specific methodological challenges. We analyze how the literature on the neural representations of uncertainty addresses those challenges and distinguish between 'code-driven' and 'correlational' approaches. Code-driven approaches make assumptions about the neural code for representing world states and the associated uncertainty. By contrast, correlational approaches search for relationships between uncertainty and neural activity without constraints on the neural representation of the world state that this uncertainty accompanies. To compare these two approaches, we apply several criteria for neural representations: sensitivity, specificity, invariance and functionality. Our analysis reveals that the two approaches lead to different but complementary findings, shaping new research questions and guiding future experiments.

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  • The field has cataloged a wide variety of confidence-related neural signals, with the functional anatomy of metacognition becoming both richer and more complex.

    “For now, it is sufficient to say that the field has cataloged a wide variety of confidence-related neural signals (Walker et al. 2023), with the functional anatomy of metacognition becoming both richer and more complex.”

    From Metacognition and Confidence: A Review and Synthesis (2024) · cites this paper as Walker et al. 2023

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  1. [2]2. Hoyer, P. O. & Hyvärinen, A. Interpreting Neural Response Variability as Monte Carlo Sampling of the Posterior. in Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 2002 (MIT Press, 2002). An influential article that proposed that neural activity could be explained with a sampling-based code.

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Authors
Walker, E. Y., Pohl, S., Denison, R. N., Barack, D. L., Lee, J., Block, N., Ma, W. J., & Meyniel, F.
Affiliations
  • University of Washington (US)
  • New York University (US)
  • Boston University (US)
  • University of Pennsylvania (US)
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
Corresponding author
Meyniel, Florent
Venue
Nature Neuroscience
Published
2023-10-09
Volume
26
Issue
11
Pages
1857-1867
ISSN
  • 1097-6256 (ISSN-L)
  • 1546-1726
OpenAlex
W4387451475
Cited by
56
References
131
Citations by year
2026: 17 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1
FWCI
1.93
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (cc-by)
Funders
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-18-CE37-0010)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
Keywords
uncertainty, neural representations, neural coding, sensitivity and specificity, invariance, functionality
MeSH terms
Neurosciences, Uncertainty

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