Neural Mechanisms of Belief Updating in the Self Domain
Poster No:
1075
Submission Type:
Late-Breaking Abstract Submission
Authors:
Yingliang Dai1, Trevor Steward2, Matthew Greaves3, Christopher Davey2, Leah Hudson2, Lee Unsworth3, Rebecca Glarin4, Bradford Moffat2, Ben Harrison2
Institutions:
1The University of Melbourne, Melbourne VIC, 2University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 3Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 4The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
People update their beliefs preferentially in response to favorable versus unfavorable information: a positivity bias linked to trait optimism (Eil & Rao, 2011; Kuzmanovic et al., 2016; Sharot et al., 2011). At a brain systems level, evidence links corticostriatal dopaminergic pathways to bottom-up 'estimation error' (EE) driven belief updating (Behrens et al., 2007; Pas et al., 2014). Other studies have highlighted the importance of motivational and affective processes, implicating specific roles for the anterior cingulate and insular cortices, as well as the ventral striatum (Barrett & Simmons, 2015; Korn et al., 2012; Müller-Pinzler et al., 2022). How these, and potentially other regions, function more specifically in support of self belief updating is less well known.
Methods:
Forty-eight participants (31 females), with a mean age of 29.42 years (± 9.2 years) completed the study. We combined a novel self belief updating paradigm (Fig. 1) with 7T fMRI to evaluate brain responses when participants updated beliefs about their personality traits in response to receiving information about others. Imaging data was pre-processed and analyzed using SPM12. We first used general linear models to examine brain responses during self belief updating versus a control condition, and then parametric modulation analyses to examine whether participant's EE directly influence these responses.
·Figure 1. Self Belief Updating Task
Results:
Behavioral results confirmed a significant positivity bias in participants' updating responses (UDB>0, p=0.08). At a brain level, self belief updating was associated with robust activation of core regions of the 'default mode network', including the posterior cingulate cortex, ventral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, together with dorsal and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, basal forebrain and hippocampus. Parametric modulation results more specifically implicated the dorsal ACC, ventral anterior insula cortex and ventral caudate nucleus in directly tracking participant's trail-by -trial EE (PFDR < 0.05). (Fig. 2)
·Figure 2. Second Level General Linear Modeling Results
Conclusions:
Positivity bias was validated in the self belief updating realm. As distinct from previous studies in non-self domains, our study more prominently emphasizes key contributions of core DMN regions, with notable additional involvement of lateral PFC and the basal forebrain. Consistent with previous work, we observed that the ACC, insular and ventral striatum more distinctly encoded EE How these regions might interact in support of belief updating in the self domain will be a question for ongoing work.
Emotion, Motivation and Social Neuroscience:
Self Processes 2
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Activation (eg. BOLD task-fMRI) 1
Keywords:
FUNCTIONAL MRI
MRI
Other - self belief updating
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Provide references using APA citation style.
Behrens, T. E. J., Woolrich, M. W., Walton, M. E., & Rushworth, M. F. S. (2007). Learning the value of information in an uncertain world. Nature Neuroscience, 10(9), 1214–1221. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1954
Eil, D., & Rao, J. M. (2011). The good news-bad news effect: asymmetric processing of objective information about yourself. American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 3(2), 114–138. https://doi.org/10.1257/mic.3.2.114
Korn, C. W., Prehn, K., Park, S. Q., Walter, H., & Heekeren, H. R. (2012). Positively biased processing of self-relevant social feedback. The Journal of Neuroscience, 32(47), 16832–16844. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3016-12.2012
Kuzmanovic, B., Jefferson, A., & Vogeley, K. (2016). The role of the neural reward circuitry in self-referential optimistic belief updates. NeuroImage, 133, 151–162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.02.014
Müller-Pinzler, L., Czekalla, N., Mayer, A. V., Schröder, A., Stolz, D. S., Paulus, F. M., & Krach, S. (2022). Neurocomputational mechanisms of affected beliefs. Communications Biology, 5(1), 1241. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-04165-3
Pas, P., Custers, R., Bijleveld, E., & Vink, M. (2014). Effort responses to suboptimal reward cues are related to striatal dopaminergic functioning. Motivation and Emotion, 38(6), 759–770. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-014-9434-1
Sharot, T., Korn, C. W., & Dolan, R. J. (2011). How unrealistic optimism is maintained in the face of reality. Nature Neuroscience, 14(11), 1475–1479. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2949