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Neural correlates of metacognitive ability and of feeling confident: a large-scale fMRI study.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2016 12; 11(12):1942-1951.SC

Abstract

One important aspect of metacognition is the ability to accurately evaluate one's performance. People vary widely in their metacognitive ability and in general are too confident when evaluating their performance. This often leads to poor decision making with potentially disastrous consequences. To further our understanding of the neural underpinnings of these processes, this fMRI study investigated inter-individual differences in metacognitive ability and effects of trial-by-trial variation in subjective feelings of confidence when making metacognitive assessments. Participants (N = 308) evaluated their performance in a high-level social and cognitive reasoning task. The results showed that higher metacognitive accuracy was associated with a decrease in activation in the anterior medial prefrontal cortex, an area previously linked to metacognition on perception and memory. Moreover, the feeling of confidence about one's choices was associated with an increase of activation in reward, memory and motor related areas including bilateral striatum and hippocampus, while less confidence was associated with activation in areas linked with negative affect and uncertainty, including dorsomedial prefrontal and bilateral orbitofrontal cortex. This might indicate that positive affect is related to higher confidence thereby biasing metacognitive decisions towards overconfidence. In support, behavioural analyses revealed that increased confidence was associated with lower metacognitive accuracy.

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Authors+Show Affiliations

Molenberghs P
School of Psychological Sciences and Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences, Monash University, Australia pascal.molenberghs@monash.edu.
Trautwein FM
Department of Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
Böckler A
Department of Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
Singer T
Department of Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
Kanske P
Department of Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.

MeSH

AdultDecision MakingEmotionsFemaleFunctional NeuroimagingHumansIndividualityJudgmentMagnetic Resonance ImagingMaleMemoryMetacognitionMiddle AgedPrefrontal Cortex

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article

Language

eng

PubMed ID

27445213

Citation

Molenberghs, Pascal, et al. "Neural Correlates of Metacognitive Ability and of Feeling Confident: a Large-scale fMRI Study." Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, vol. 11, no. 12, 2016, pp. 1942-1951.
Molenberghs P, Trautwein FM, Böckler A, et al. Neural correlates of metacognitive ability and of feeling confident: a large-scale fMRI study. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2016;11(12):1942-1951.
Molenberghs, P., Trautwein, F. M., Böckler, A., Singer, T., & Kanske, P. (2016). Neural correlates of metacognitive ability and of feeling confident: a large-scale fMRI study. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 11(12), 1942-1951.
Molenberghs P, et al. Neural Correlates of Metacognitive Ability and of Feeling Confident: a Large-scale fMRI Study. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2016;11(12):1942-1951. PubMed PMID: 27445213.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Neural correlates of metacognitive ability and of feeling confident: a large-scale fMRI study. AU - Molenberghs,Pascal, AU - Trautwein,Fynn-Mathis, AU - Böckler,Anne, AU - Singer,Tania, AU - Kanske,Philipp, Y1 - 2016/07/21/ PY - 2015/10/22/received PY - 2016/06/23/revised PY - 2016/07/11/accepted PY - 2016/7/23/pubmed PY - 2017/11/4/medline PY - 2016/7/23/entrez KW - confidence KW - decision making KW - fMRI KW - metacognition KW - social neuroscience SP - 1942 EP - 1951 JF - Social cognitive and affective neuroscience JO - Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci VL - 11 IS - 12 N2 - One important aspect of metacognition is the ability to accurately evaluate one's performance. People vary widely in their metacognitive ability and in general are too confident when evaluating their performance. This often leads to poor decision making with potentially disastrous consequences. To further our understanding of the neural underpinnings of these processes, this fMRI study investigated inter-individual differences in metacognitive ability and effects of trial-by-trial variation in subjective feelings of confidence when making metacognitive assessments. Participants (N = 308) evaluated their performance in a high-level social and cognitive reasoning task. The results showed that higher metacognitive accuracy was associated with a decrease in activation in the anterior medial prefrontal cortex, an area previously linked to metacognition on perception and memory. Moreover, the feeling of confidence about one's choices was associated with an increase of activation in reward, memory and motor related areas including bilateral striatum and hippocampus, while less confidence was associated with activation in areas linked with negative affect and uncertainty, including dorsomedial prefrontal and bilateral orbitofrontal cortex. This might indicate that positive affect is related to higher confidence thereby biasing metacognitive decisions towards overconfidence. In support, behavioural analyses revealed that increased confidence was associated with lower metacognitive accuracy. SN - 1749-5024 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/27445213/Neural_correlates_of_metacognitive_ability_and_of_feeling_confident:_a_large_scale_fMRI_study_ DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -