Endogenous Attention Effects on Metacognitive Awareness: A Proof-of-Concept DLPFC-cTBS Study
PsyArXiv Preprints November 6, 2026 preprint DOI: osf:adqe2_v3 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Attention Consciousness Metacognition Posner task Cognitive neuroscience Health psychology Perception Vision Cognitive psychology |
| Key findings | Invalid spatial cues slowed reaction times, shifted response bias, and impaired metacognitive efficiency without affecting accuracy, subjective visibility, or perceptual sensitivity (d′). Continuous theta-burst stimulation over the bilateral DLPFC disrupted these attentional effects, which persisted after control stimulation of the primary somatosensory cortex, and trial-by-trial analyses indicated DLPFC disruption impairs adaptive metacognitive updating. The authors argue the DLPFC regulates executive and attentional processes informing metacognitive evaluations rather than generating metacognitive contents directly. |
Abstract
Background: While endogenous attention is known to influence visual metacognition, it remains unclear whether these effects occur without altering perceptual performance, and what specific role the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) plays in mediating them.
Objective: We investigated whether spatial attention modulates subjective visibility and metacognitive efficiency independently of perceptual sensitivity (d′), and whether the DLPFC contributes to these effects.
Methods: Across two experiments, participants completed a two-alternative forced-choice discrimination task embedded within a Posner cueing paradigm, utilizing adaptive staircases. We assessed reaction times, signal detection metrics, subjective visibility ratings, and metacognitive efficiency. In Experiment 2, this task was performed following continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) targeting either the bilateral DLPFC or an active control site (primary somatosensory cortex, S1).
Results: In Experiment 1, invalid cues prolonged reaction times, shifted response bias, and impaired metacognitive efficiency, without affecting overall accuracy, subjective visibility, or perceptual sensitivity. In Experiment 2, whereas these attentional effects persisted following control S1-cTBS, they were significantly disrupted following DLPFC-cTBS, despite objective perceptual performance remaining stable. Furthermore, trial-by- trial analyses indicated that DLPFC disruption impairs adaptive metacognitive updating.
Conclusions: Endogenous spatial attention modulates visual metacognitive efficiency independently of objective perceptual sensitivity. Notably, our neuromodulatory findings suggest that the DLPFC does not generate metacognitive contents directly, but rather regulates the executive and attentional processes that inform metacognitive evaluations.