Prestimulus alpha-band power biases visual discrimination confidence, but not accuracy

Abstract

Oscillations in the alpha-band (8-13 Hz) of human electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings are thought to reflect cortical excitability. As such, the magnitude of alpha power prior to the onset of a near threshold visual stimulus has been shown to predict stimulus detectability. Mechanistically, however, non-specific increases in visual-cortical excitability should result in amplified signal as well as amplified noise, leaving actual discriminability unchanged. Using a two-choice orientation discrimination task with equally probable stimuli, we found that discrimination accuracy was unaffected by fluctuations in prestimulus alpha-band power. Decision confidence, on the other hand, was strongly negatively correlated with prestimulus alpha power. This finding constitutes a clear dissociation between objective and subjective measures of visual perception as a function of prestimulus cortical excitability. This dissociation is predicted by models of perceptual confidence under which the balance of evidence in favor of each choice drives objective performance but only the magnitude of evidence in favor of the chosen stimulus drives subjective reports, suggesting that human perceptual confidence can be suboptimal.