Decoding brain-wide signatures of uninformed choices for BCI assisted decision-making

Abstract

Decision-making is an essential cognitive function. It can be impaired due to a number of neurological and psychiatric disorders as well as external factors such as time pressure or stress. To assist users during decision-making, we propose a decision-making brain computer interface (BCI) that can alert to uninformed decision-making, prompt additional information seeking and therefore improve decision-making quality. To this aim, we establish the feasibility of decoding uninformed decision-making from local field potentials recorded with implanted stereo-electroencephalography (sEEG) electrodes in 6 participants. We show that decoding of available information above chance level is possible for all participants, both after stimulus presentation, as well as before task response. Starting from stimulus onset, the temporal processing hierarchy of informed vs. uninformed decision-making spans from visual processing through hippocampal memory processes to frontal control network shifting. The anterior insula, known to be a decision-making hub, codes available information during the decision phase prior to button press. These results further elucidate the neural basis of coded information availability and confirm the feasibility of a decision-making BCI.