Neurophysiology of perceived confidence.
Martin Graziano, Lucas C Parra, Mariano Sigman
Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference 2010 DOI: 10.1109/iembs.2010.5626567 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Subjects in a partial report paradigm (likely human adults, but not specified) |
| Key findings | An early EEG response during encoding partially correlates with perceived confidence, but the bulk of subjective confidence is determined during a late, N400-like waveform during retrieval. This indicates EEG markers can access internal subjective states uncoupled from objective response and stimulus properties. |
Abstract
In a partial report paradigm, subjects observe during a brief presentation a cluttered field and after some time - typically ranging from 100 ms to a second - are asked to report a subset of the presented elements. A vast buffer of information is transiently available to be broadcasted which, if not retrieved in time, fades rapidly without reaching consciousness. An interesting feature of this experiment is that objective performance and subjective confidence is decoupled. This converts this paradigm in an ideal vehicle to understand the brain dynamics of the construction of confidence. Here we report a high-density EEG experiment in which we infer elements of the EEG response which are indicative of subjective confidence. We find that an early response during encoding partially correlates with perceived confidence. However, the bulk of the weight of subjective confidence is determined during a late, N400-like waveform, during the retrieval stage. This shows that we can find markers of access to internal, subjective states, that are uncoupled from objective response and stimulus properties of the task, and we propose that this can be used with decoding methods of EEG to infer subjective mental states.