Cortical β Power Reflects a Neural Implementation of Decision Boundary Collapse in Speeded Decisions

Kirschner, Hans; Fischer, Adrian G; Danielmeier, Claudia; Klein, Tilmann A; Ullsperger, Markus

Abstract

A prominent account of decision-making assumes that information is accumulated until a fixed response threshold is crossed. However, many decisions require weighting of information appropriately against time. Collapsing response thresholds are a mathematically optimal solution to this decision problem. However, our understanding of the neurocomputational mechanisms underlying dynamic response thresholds remains significantly incomplete. To investigate this issue, we used a multistage drift–diffusion model (DDM) and also analyzed EEG β power lateralization (BPL). The latter served as a neural proxy for decision signals. We analyzed a large dataset (n = 863; 434 females and 429 males) from a speeded flanker task and data from an independent confirmation sample (n = 119; 70 females and 49 males). We showed that a DDM with collapsing decision thresholds, a process wherein the decision boundary reduces over time, captured participants' time-dependent decision policy more accurately than a model with fixed thresholds. Previous research suggests that BPL over motor cortices reflects features of a decision signal and that its peak, coinciding with the motor response, may serve as a neural proxy for the decision threshold. We show that BPL around the response decreased with increasing RTs. Together, our findings offer compelling evidence for the existence of collapsing decision thresholds in decision-making processes.

Citation

Kirschner, H., Fischer, A. G., Danielmeier, C., Klein, T. A., & Ullsperger, M. (2024). Cortical β Power Reflects a Neural Implementation of Decision Boundary Collapse in Speeded Decisions. Journal of Neuroscience, 44(13), Article e1713232024. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1713-23.2024

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 13, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Feb 15, 2024
• Publication Date: Mar 27, 2024
• Deposit Date: Apr 11, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 16, 2024
• Journal: Journal of Neuroscience
• Electronic ISSN: 1529-2401
• Publisher: Society for Neuroscience
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 44
• Issue: 13
• Article Number: e1713232024
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1713-23.2024
• Keywords: EEG; decision-making; drift diffusion model; decision boundary collapse
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/32159647