Hebscher Melissa, Gilboa Asaf
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 3G3; Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, Toronto, ON, Canada M6A 2E1.
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 3G3; Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, Toronto, ON, Canada M6A 2E1; Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery, Toronto, ON, Canada M6A 2E1.
Neuropsychologia. 2016 Sep;90:46-58. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.05.003. Epub 2016 May 3.
The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) has been implicated in a wide array of functions across multiple domains. In this review, we focus on the vmPFC's involvement in mediating strategic aspects of memory retrieval, memory-related schema functions, and decision-making. We suggest that vmPFC generates a confidence signal that informs decisions and memory-guided behaviour. Confidence is central to these seemingly diverse functions: (1) Strategic retrieval: lesions to the vmPFC impair an early, automatic, and intuitive monitoring process ("feeling of rightness"; FOR) often associated with confabulation (spontaneous reporting of erroneous memories). Critically, confabulators typically demonstrate high levels of confidence in their false memories, suggesting that faulty monitoring following vmPFC damage may lead to indiscriminate confidence signals. (2) Memory schemas: the vmPFC is critically involved in instantiating and maintaining contextually relevant schemas, broadly defined as higher level knowledge structures that encapsulate lower level representational elements. The correspondence between memory retrieval cues and these activated schemas leads to FOR monitoring. Stronger, more elaborate schemas produce stronger FOR and influence confidence in the veracity of memory candidates. (3) Finally, we review evidence on the vmPFC's role in decision-making, extending this role to decision-making during memory retrieval. During non-mnemonic and mnemonic decision-making the vmPFC automatically encodes confidence. Confidence signal in the vmPFC is revealed as a non-linear relationship between a first-order monitoring assessment and second-order action or choice. Attempting to integrate the multiple functions of the vmPFC, we propose a posterior-anterior organizational principle for this region. More posterior vmPFC regions are involved in earlier, automatic, subjective, and contextually sensitive functions, while more anterior regions are involved in controlled actions based on these earlier functions. Confidence signals reflect the non-linear relationship between first-order, posterior-mediated and second-order, anterior-mediated processes and are represented along the entire axis.
腹内侧前额叶皮层（vmPFC）与多个领域的一系列功能相关。在本综述中，我们重点关注vmPFC在介导记忆检索的策略方面、与记忆相关的图式功能以及决策中的作用。我们认为，vmPFC会产生一个信心信号，为决策和记忆引导行为提供信息。信心对于这些看似不同的功能至关重要：（1）策略性检索：vmPFC损伤会损害一种早期、自动且直观的监测过程（“正确感”；FOR），这种过程通常与虚构（错误记忆的自发报告）相关。关键的是，虚构者通常对其错误记忆表现出高度自信，这表明vmPFC损伤后的监测失误可能导致不加区分的信心信号。（2）记忆图式：vmPFC在实例化和维持上下文相关图式方面起着关键作用，广义上，这些图式被定义为封装较低层次表征元素的高级知识结构。记忆检索线索与这些激活的图式之间的对应关系会引发FOR监测。更强、更精细的图式会产生更强的FOR，并影响对记忆候选真实性的信心。（3）最后，我们回顾了关于vmPFC在决策中的作用的证据，并将这一作用扩展到记忆检索过程中的决策。在非记忆性和记忆性决策过程中，vmPFC会自动编码信心。vmPFC中的信心信号表现为一阶监测评估与二阶行动或选择之间的非线性关系。为了尝试整合vmPFC的多种功能，我们提出了该区域的后 - 前组织原则。vmPFC更靠后的区域参与早期、自动、主观且对上下文敏感的功能，而更靠前的区域则参与基于这些早期功能的控制性行动。信心信号反映了一阶、由后部介导的过程与二阶、由前部介导的过程之间的非线性关系，并沿整个轴呈现。
