Reversible Silencing of the Frontopolar Cortex Selectively Impairs Metacognitive Judgment on Non-experience in Primates

• Published in: Neuron (Cambridge, Mass.) Vol. 97; no. 4; pp. 980 - 989.e6
• Main Authors: Miyamoto, Kentaro, Setsuie, Rieko, Osada, Takahiro, Miyashita, Yasushi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 21.02.2018; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Animals; area 10; Brain Mapping; confidence judgement; Female; frontopolar cortex; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; functional MRI; GABA-A receptor agonist; ignorance; Judgment - physiology; Macaca; macaque monkeys; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Memory; Metacognition; Metacognition - physiology; Monkeys & apes; post-decision wagering; Prefrontal cortex; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Recognition (Psychology); whole-brain mapping; functional MRI; area 10; ignorance; macaque monkeys; whole-brain mapping; confidence judgement; metacognition; GABA-A receptor agonist; post-decision wagering; frontopolar cortex
• ISSN: 0896-6273; 1097-4199
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2017.12.040

Self-evaluation of one’s own ignorance requires us to peer into our own mind retrospectively. Here, we found that only the bilateral frontopolar cortices (area 10) are recruited for metacognitive evaluation of non-experienced events in macaque monkeys performing metacognitive confidence judgment on memory under fMRI scanning and that targeted reversible inactivation of the localized spots in area 10 selectively impaired the confidence judgment of non-experienced events. In contrast, fMRI experiments revealed that area 10 was not recruited for metacognition of experienced events like the way that the dorsal prefrontal cortex (area 9) was and, correspondingly, the inactivation of area 10 did not impair confidence judgment of experienced events. Notably, this inactivation did not impair the ability to identify novel events by distinguishing from repetitive events. Our findings elucidate that the frontopolar cortex plays a causal role to confer not awareness of past experience in general but awareness of one’s own ignorance. •Frontopolar area 10 is active for metacognitive judgment of non-experienced events•Inactivation of area 10 selectively impairs metacognition of non-experienced events•Ability to detect non-experienced events is unaffected by inactivation of area 10•Causal origin for awareness of ignorance is distinctive from that of experience Miyamoto et al. found that the frontopolar cortex (area 10) is recruited for metacognitive evaluation of non-experienced events, of which inactivation impairs confidence judgment of non-experienced events without impairing the ability to identify novel event per se, in macaque monkeys.