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The neural basis of metacognitive ability
Open accessAbstract
Ability in various cognitive domains is often assessed by measuring task performance, such as the accuracy of a perceptual categorization. A similar analysis can be applied to metacognitive reports about a task to quantify the degree to which an individual is aware of his or her success or failure. Here, we review the psychological and neural underpinnings of metacognitive accuracy, drawing on research in memory and decision-making. These data show that metacognitive accuracy is dissociable from task performance and varies across individuals. Convergent evidence indicates that the function of the rostral and dorsal aspect of the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) is important for the accuracy of retrospective judgements of performance. In contrast, prospective judgements of performance may depend upon medial PFC. We close with a discussion of how metacognitive processes relate to concepts of cognitive control, and propose a neural synthesis in which dorsolateral and anterior prefrontal cortical subregions interact with interoceptive cortices (cingulate and insula) to promote accurate judgements of performance.
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“Weil et al. (2013) showed that metacognitive efficiency increases during adolescence, consistent with the maturation of prefrontal regions thought to underpin metacognition (Fleming and Dolan, 2012).”
From How to measure metacognition (2014) · cites this paper as Fleming and Dolan, 2012
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“…comes from the finding that confidence relies on specialized brain areas such as the anterior prefrontal cortex ( Fleming et al. 2012, 2014; Fleming and Dolan 2012; Morales et al. 2018; Shekhar and Rahnev 2018) which is also recruited whenever there is a need to integrate information from…”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Fleming, S. M., & Dolan, R. J.
- Affiliations
- New York University (US)
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Fleming, Stephen M.
- Venue
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2012-05-19
- Volume
- 367
- Issue
- 1594
- Pages
- 1338-1349
- ISSN
- 0962-8436 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-2970
- PMC
- PMC3318765
- OpenAlex
- W2155610381
- Semantic Scholar
- 6067b80d698ec3f84bd5329f7154f302e0cde788
- Cited by
- 747
- References
- 153
- Citations by year
- 2026: 71 · 2025: 69 · 2024: 65 · 2023: 52 · 2022: 49 · 2021: 64 · 2020: 66 · 2019: 57 · 2018: 49 · 2017: 55 · 2016: 46 · 2015: 30 · 2014: 39 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 2.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (091593, 078865/Z/05/Z)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
- Keywords
- metacognition, metacognitive accuracy, lateral prefrontal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, insula, interoception, cognitive control, memory, decision-making, individual differences
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Cognition, Decision Making, Humans, Memory, Neural Pathways, Prefrontal Cortex
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