Neural latent representation of implicit perceptual decision confidence signatures from brain-wide intracranial EEG
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Human perceptual decision confidence has been associated with brain-wide signalling, albeit with inconsistencies across studies. It remains unclear whether more robust neural latent representations exist, particularly for implicit confidence. We address this by applying complementary machine learning approaches to comprehensive, brain-wide intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) data acquired without explicit confidence reports. Using explainable feature selection methods, we elucidated key spatiotemporal iEEG components, especially in the frontal cortex, that readily distinguished confidence characteristics related to decision correctness, difficulty, and speed, and that were transferable across motor modalities. Despite inconsistencies in the features identified across methods and conditions, dimensionality reductions revealed robust low-dimensional neural latent representations. Furthermore, their neural trajectories within a shared subspace enhanced the distinguishability of confidence characteristics. Overall, our results uncover low-dimensional spatial and temporal neural latent representations underlying human implicit perceptual decision confidence that are robust to analytical methods and decision conditions.
Institutions: Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, University of Ulster, Ulster University, Derry-Londonderry Campus, University of Sussex, Northwell Health, Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Hofstra University, Donald & Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7220914222