Model-based fMRI reveals dissimilarity processes underlying base rate neglect
- Texas Tech University, United States
- Texas A&M University, United States
- University of Sydney, Australia
Abstract
Extensive evidence suggests that people use base rate information inconsistently in decision making. A classic example is the inverse base rate effect (IBRE), whereby participants classify ambiguous stimuli sharing features of both common and rare categories as members of the rare category. Computational models of the IBRE have either posited that it arises from associative similarity-based mechanisms or dissimilarity-based processes that may depend upon higher-level inference. Here we develop a hybrid model, which posits that similarity- and dissimilarity-based evidence both contribute to the IBRE, and test it using functional magnetic resonance imaging data collected from human subjects completing an IBRE task. Consistent with our model, multivoxel pattern analysis reveals that activation patterns on ambiguous test trials contain information consistent with dissimilarity-based processing. Further, trial-by-trial activation in left rostrolateral prefrontal cortex tracks model-based predictions for dissimilarity-based processing, consistent with theories positing a role for higher-level symbolic processing in the IBRE.
Data availability
Source data and scripts used to create all figures and tables (e.g., R code, PyMVPA scripts, statistical maps for the model-based fMRI analysis) are posted to a publicly available online repository (Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/atbz7/). Raw fMRI data for the study organized according to Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) guidelines are available at https://openneuro.org/datasets/ds001302.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Texas Tech University
- Tyler Davis
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Human subjects: Subjects provided written informed consent before taking part in the study, and all procedures involving human subjects were approved by the Texas Tech University Institutional Review Board.
Copyright
© 2018, O'Bryan et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Model-based fMRI reveals dissimilarity processes underlying base rate neglect
eLife 7:e36395.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.36395
Further reading
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Methods:
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Results:
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Conclusions:
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Funding:
Gut2Behave project was initiated from ERA-NET NEURON network (Joint Transnational Call 2019) and was financed by Academy of Finland, French National Research Agency (ANR-19-NEUR-0003-03) and the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FRS-FNRS; PINT-MULTI R.8013.19, Belgium). Metabolomics analysis of the TSDS samples was supported by grant from the Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies.
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