Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
Carney Institute for Brain Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
Nat Hum Behav. 2024 Nov;8(11):2194-2208. doi: 10.1038/s41562-024-01971-z. Epub 2024 Sep 6.
Previous work has identified characteristic neural signatures of value-based decision-making, including neural dynamics that closely resemble the ramping evidence accumulation process believed to underpin choice. Here we test whether these signatures of the choice process can be temporally dissociated from additional, choice-'independent' value signals. Indeed, EEG activity during value-based choice revealed distinct spatiotemporal clusters, with a stimulus-locked cluster reflecting affective reactions to choice sets and a response-locked cluster reflecting choice difficulty. Surprisingly, 'neither' of these clusters met the criteria for an evidence accumulation signal. Instead, we found that stimulus-locked activity can 'mimic' an evidence accumulation process when aligned to the response. Re-analysing four previous studies, including three perceptual decision-making studies, we show that response-locked signatures of evidence accumulation disappear when stimulus-locked and response-locked activity are modelled jointly. Collectively, our findings show that neural signatures of value can reflect choice-independent processes and look deceptively like evidence accumulation.
先前的工作已经确定了基于价值的决策的特征性神经特征，包括与被认为是选择基础的递增证据积累过程非常相似的神经动力学。在这里，我们测试这些选择过程的特征是否可以与额外的、与选择无关的价值信号在时间上区分开来。事实上，基于价值的选择过程中的 EEG 活动揭示了不同的时空集群，其中一个与刺激锁定的集群反映了对选择集的情感反应，而另一个与反应锁定的集群反映了选择的难度。令人惊讶的是，这两个集群都不符合证据积累信号的标准。相反，我们发现，当与反应对齐时，刺激锁定的活动可以“模拟”证据积累过程。重新分析了四项先前的研究，包括三项感知决策研究，我们表明，当刺激锁定和反应锁定的活动一起建模时，反应锁定的证据积累特征就会消失。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，价值的神经特征可以反映与选择无关的过程，并且看起来令人信服地像证据积累。
