Abstract
Decisions are occasionally accompanied by changes-of-mind. While considered a hallmark of cognitive flexibility, the mechanisms underlying changes-of-mind remain elusive. Previous studies on perceptual decision making have focused on changes-of-mind that are primarily driven by the accumulation of additional noisy sensory evidence after the initial decision. In a motion discrimination task, we demonstrate that changes-of-mind can occur even in the absence of additional evidence after the initial decision. Unlike previous studies of changes-of-mind, the majority of changes-of-mind in our experiment occurred in trials with prolonged initial response times. This suggests a distinct mechanism underlying such changes. Using a neural circuit model of decision uncertainty and change-of-mind behaviour, we demonstrate that this phenomenon is associated with top-down signals mediated by an uncertainty-monitoring neural population. Such a mechanism is consistent with recent neurophysiological evidence showing a link between changes-of-mind and elevated top-down neural activity. Our model explains the long response times associated with changes-of-mind through high decision uncertainty levels in such trials, and accounts for the observed motor response trajectories. Overall, our work provides a computational framework that explains changes-of-mind in the absence of new post-decision evidence.
Original language | English |
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Article number | e1007149 |
Number of pages | 21 |
Journal | PLoS Computational Biology |
Volume | 16 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published (in print/issue) - 3 Feb 2020 |
Keywords
- decision making
- cognitive science
- change of mind
- neural circuit model
- psychophysics
- process tracing
- cognition
- neural dynamics
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Kongfatt Wong-Lin
- School of Computing, Eng & Intel. Sys - Professor
- Faculty Of Computing, Eng. & Built Env. - Full Professor
Person: Academic