Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0SZ, UK.
Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, CB2 7EF, UK.
Sci Rep. 2018 May 8;8(1):7247. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-25127-y.
Choosing between equivalent response options requires the resolution of ambiguity. One could facilitate such decisions by monitoring previous actions and implementing transient or arbitrary rules to differentiate response options. This would reduce the entropy of chosen actions. We examined voluntary action decisions during magnetoencephalography, identifying the spatiotemporal correlates of stimulus- and choice-entropy. Negative correlations between frontotemporal activity and entropy of past trials were observed after participants' responses, reflecting sequential monitoring of recent events. In contrast, choice entropy correlated negatively with prefrontal activity, before and after participants' response, consistent with transient activation of latent response-sets ahead of a decision and updating the monitor of recent decisions after responding. Individual differences in current choices were related to the strength of the prefrontal signals that reflect monitoring of the statistical regularities in previous events. Together, these results explain individual expressions of voluntary action, through differential engagement of prefrontal areas to guide sequential decisions.
在等效的反应选项之间进行选择需要解决歧义。通过监测先前的动作并实施瞬时或任意规则来区分反应选项，可以促进这些决策。这将减少所选动作的熵。我们在磁共振成像期间检查了自愿行动决策，确定了刺激和选择熵的时空相关性。在参与者做出反应后，观察到额颞部活动与过去试验的熵之间存在负相关，反映了对最近事件的连续监测。相反，选择熵与前额叶活动呈负相关，在参与者做出反应之前和之后，这与在做出决定之前临时激活潜在的反应集并在做出反应后更新最近决定的监测一致。当前选择的个体差异与反映对先前事件中统计规律的监测的前额叶信号的强度有关。总之，这些结果通过前额叶区域的不同参与来解释自愿行动的个体表达，以指导连续决策。
