FMRI evidence for a dual process account of the speed-accuracy tradeoff in decision-making.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The speed and accuracy of decision-making have a well-known trading relationship: hasty decisions are more prone to errors while careful, accurate judgments take more time. Despite the pervasiveness of this speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) in decision-making, its neural basis is still unknown.

Methodology/principal findings

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we show that emphasizing the speed of a perceptual decision at the expense of its accuracy lowers the amount of evidence-related activity in lateral prefrontal cortex. Moreover, this speed-accuracy difference in lateral prefrontal cortex activity correlates with the speed-accuracy difference in the decision criterion metric of signal detection theory. We also show that the same instructions incre

SUBMITTER: Ivanoff J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2440815 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature