Neural basis of concurrent deliberation toward a choice and confidence judgment.

ABSTRACT: Decision confidence plays a key role in flexible behavior and (meta)cognition, but its underlying neural mechanisms remain elusive. To uncover the latent dynamics of confidence formation at the level of single neurons and population activity, we trained nonhuman primates to report a perceptual choice and the associated level of confidence with a single eye movement on every trial. Monkey behavior was well fit by a bounded accumulator model, where choice and confidence are processed concurrently, but not by a serial model, where choice is resolved first, followed by postdecision accumulation for confidence. Neurons in the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) reflected concurrent accumulation, showing covariation of choice and confidence signals across the population, and within-trial dynamics c

SUBMITTER: Vivar-Lazo M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12779572 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature