Neural dynamics of confidence formation under uncertainty
- 1Toyohashi University of Technology
Abstract
Our perceptual decision-making can vary depending not only on changes in the surrounding environment but also on metacognitive processes. In particular, the balance between confidence and uncertainty may play a critical role in shaping behavior and the underlying neural dynamics over time, yet how this balance operates remains largely unclear, especially when uncertainty is high and confidence is low, or vice versa, during perceptual decision-making. To address this, we employed the Multi-Attribute Attention Task, along with an option to opt-out of perceptual judgments. During this task, we recorded multichannel electroencephalography (EEG) data from 26 healthy individuals. Our results showed that EEG-based functional connectivity increased in density across the whole brain, which was associated with the emergence of confidence during perceptual decision-making. Moreover, increased functional connectivity density emerged in correct trials but was not observed in incorrect trials. Notably, this density increase was specific to correct trials and became evident prior to the decision being made. Thus, correct decisions may be characterized by the early recruitment of distributed neural networks that support the integration of sensory evidence and the formation of reliable confidence. Building on these findings, we provide novel evidence that confidence formation under uncertainty relies on dynamic changes in densely interconnected networks across distributed brain regions that support highly accurate and high-confidence perceptual decision-making in humans.
Related
- Neural latent representation of implicit perceptual decision confidence signatures from brain-wide intracranial EEG
- Confidence-Ordering Reversal under Contextual Priors in Neural Decoding
- Neural representation of the subjective uncertainty of prediction in the human brain
- Uncertainty-aware neural emulation reveals climate-resilient maize traits at scale
- Hippocampal Neuronal Overflow and Cortical Reconstruction: A Hypothesis on the Formation of Neural Networks Unique to the Human Brain
BibTeX
@misc{okaguchi2026neural,
title = {{Neural dynamics of confidence formation under uncertainty}},
author = {T. Okaguchi and K. Uehara},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.08.750275},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.08.750275v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Neural dynamics of confidence formation under uncertainty
AU - T. Okaguchi
AU - K. Uehara
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/08
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.08.750275
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.08.750275v1
AB - Our perceptual decision-making can vary depending not only on changes in the surrounding environment but also on metacognitive processes. In particular, the balance between confidence and uncertainty may play a critical role in shaping behavior and the underlying neural dynamics over time, yet how this balance operates remains largely unclear, especially when uncertainty is high and confidence is low, or vice versa, during perceptual decision-making. To address this, we employed the Multi-Attribute Attention Task, along with an option to opt-out of perceptual judgments. During this task, we recorded multichannel electroencephalography (EEG) data from 26 healthy individuals. Our results showed that EEG-based functional connectivity increased in density across the whole brain, which was associated with the emergence of confidence during perceptual decision-making. Moreover, increased functional connectivity density emerged in correct trials but was not observed in incorrect trials. Notably, this density increase was specific to correct trials and became evident prior to the decision being made. Thus, correct decisions may be characterized by the early recruitment of distributed neural networks that support the integration of sensory evidence and the formation of reliable confidence. Building on these findings, we provide novel evidence that confidence formation under uncertainty relies on dynamic changes in densely interconnected networks across distributed brain regions that support highly accurate and high-confidence perceptual decision-making in humans.
ER -