Catecholamines reduce choice history biases in perceptual decision making.

ABSTRACT: Theoretical accounts postulate that the catecholaminergic neuromodulator noradrenaline shapes cognition and behavior by reducing the impact of prior expectations on learning, inference, and decision-making. A ubiquitous effect of dynamic priors on perceptual decisions under uncertainty is choice history bias: the tendency to systematically repeat, or alternate, previous choices, even when stimulus categories are presented in a random sequence. Here, we directly test for a causal impact of catecholamines on these priors. We pharmacologically elevated catecholamine levels in human participants through the application of the noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor atomoxetine. We quantified the resulting changes in observers' history biases in a visual perceptual decision task. Choice history biases

SUBMITTER: de Gee JW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12407465 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature