title: Domain-specific impairment in metacognitive accuracy following anterior prefrontal lesions.
abstract: Humans have the capacity to evaluate the success of cognitive processes, known as metacognition. Convergent evidence supports a role for anterior prefrontal cortex in metacognitive judgements of perceptual processes. However, it is unknown whether metacognition is a global phenomenon, with anterior prefrontal cortex supporting metacognition across domains, or whether it relies on domain-specific neural substrates. To address this question, we measured metacognitive accuracy in patients with lesions to anterior prefrontal cortex (n = 7) in two distinct domains, perception and memory, by assessing the correspondence between objective performance and subjective ratings of performance. Despite performing equivalently to a comparison group with temporal lobe lesions (n = 11) and healthy controls (n = 19), patients with lesions to the anterior prefrontal cortex showed a selective deficit in perceptual metacognitive accuracy (meta-d'/d', 95% confidence interval 0.28-0.64). Crucially, however, the anterior prefrontal cortex lesion group's metacognitive accuracy on an equivalent memory task remained unimpaired (meta-d'/d', 95% confidence interval 0.78-1.29). Metacognitive accuracy in the temporal lobe group was intact in both domains. Our results support a causal role for anterior prefrontal cortex in perceptual metacognition, and indicate that the neural architecture of metacognition, while often considered global and domain-general, comprises domain-specific components that may be differentially affected by neurological insult.
authors.affiliation: 1 Centre for Neural Science, New York University, USA 2 Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK sf102@nyu.edu.
authors.forename: Stephen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Fleming
authors.affiliation: 1 Centre for Neural Science, New York University, USA 3 Department of Psychology, City University of New York, USA.
authors.forename: Jihye
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ryu
authors.affiliation: 4 Department of Neurosurgery, New York University School of Medicine, USA.
authors.forename: John G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Golfinos
authors.affiliation: 5 Department of Neurology, New York University School of Medicine, USA.
authors.forename: Karen E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Blackmon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000293:injuries*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000293:injuries
keywords: cognitive control; consciousness; neuropsychology; prefrontal cortex; temporal lobe
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