Université de Bordeaux, Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives, UMR 5293, F-33000 Bordeaux, France.
CNRS, Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives, UMR 5293, F-33000 Bordeaux, France.
Sci Rep. 2017 Mar 28;7:45267. doi: 10.1038/srep45267.
When facing doubt, humans can go back over a performed action in order to optimize subsequent performance. The present study aimed to establish and characterize physiological doubt and checking behavior in non-human primates (NHP). We trained two rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) in a newly designed "Check-or-Go" task that allows the animal to repeatedly check and change the availability of a reward before making the final decision towards obtaining that reward. By manipulating the ambiguity of a visual cue in which the reward status is embedded, we successfully modulated animal certainty and created doubt that led the animals to check. This voluntary checking behavior was further characterized by making EEG recordings and measuring correlated changes in salivary cortisol. Our data show that monkeys have the metacognitive ability to express voluntary checking behavior similar to that observed in humans, which depends on uncertainty monitoring, relates to anxiety and involves brain frontal areas.
当面对疑虑时，人类可以回顾已执行的动作，以优化后续的表现。本研究旨在建立和描述非人类灵长类动物（NHP）中的生理疑虑和检查行为。我们在一个新设计的“检查或行动”任务中对两只恒河猴（Macaca mulatta）进行了训练，该任务允许动物在做出最终决定以获得奖励之前，反复检查和改变奖励的可用性。通过操纵嵌入奖励状态的视觉线索的模糊性，我们成功地调节了动物的确定性，产生了疑虑，促使动物进行检查。通过进行 EEG 记录并测量唾液皮质醇的相关变化，进一步对这种自愿检查行为进行了特征描述。我们的数据表明，猴子具有表现出类似于人类观察到的自愿检查行为的元认知能力，这种能力取决于不确定性监测，与焦虑有关，涉及大脑额叶区域。
