Although most work on perceptual decision making has focused on the processing within the visual, temporal, and parietal lobes, recent research points to an underappreciated but critical role of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). PFC provides high-level control of perception, but it is unclear whether this control can be subdivided into different processes and whether different PFC regions have different roles. Here I review evidence that prefrontal top-down control is organized in the processes of selection control, decision control, and evaluation. These three processes overlap and interact with each other while at the same time maintaining a temporal hierarchy. Further, these different stages are supported by dissociable regions within the PFC that control hierarchically organized cognition. The current proposal for PFC’s role in perceptual control can serve as the basis for a deeper understanding of both the functional organization of PFC and the processes underlying perceptual decision making.
BadreD.D’EspositoM. (2009). (See References). An important review of the functional and anatomical evidence for a posterior-to-anterior hierarchy in PFC.
2.
GilbertC. D.LiW. (2013). (See References). An exhaustive, technical review of the top-down influences in perception focusing on single-cell physiology.
3.
HassonU.ChenJ.HoneyC. J. (2015). Hierarchical process memory: Memory as an integral component of information processing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19, 304–313. An alternative approach to examining hierarchies in the brain through the exploration of the time window over which a region processes information.
4.
HeekerenH. R.MarrettS.UngerleiderL. G. (2008). (See References). A classical and accessible review of the sensory systems involved in bottom-up processing.
5.
RahnevD.NeeD. E.RiddleJ.LarsonA. S.D’EspositoM. (2016). (See References). An empirical report demonstrating the role of PFC in the control of different perceptual stages.
6.
BadreD.D’EspositoM. (2009). Is the rostro-caudal axis of the frontal lobe hierarchical?Nature Reviews. Neuroscience, 10, 659–669. doi:10.1038/nrn2667
7.
BichotN. P.HeardM. T.DeGennaroE. M.DesimoneR. (2015). A source for feature-based attention in the prefrontal cortex. Neuron, 88, 832–844. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2015.10.001
8.
CorteseA.AmanoK.KoizumiA.LauH.KawatoM. (2016). Decoded fMRI neurofeedback can induce bidirectional behavioral changes within single participants. NeuroImage, 149, 323–337. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.01.069
9.
FlemingS. M.DolanR. J. (2012). The neural basis of metacognitive ability. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, 367, 1338–1349. doi:10.1098/rstb.2011.0417
10.
FlemingS. M.DolanR. J.FrithC. D. (2012). Metacognition: Computation, biology and function. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, 367, 1280–1286. doi:10.1098/rstb.2012.0021
11.
FusterJ. M. (2008). The prefrontal cortex (4th ed.). London, UK: Academic Press.
HeekerenH. R.MarrettS.UngerleiderL. G. (2008). The neural systems that mediate human perceptual decision making. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9, 467–479. doi:10.1038/nrn2374
14.
HeitzR. P.SchallJ. D. (2012). Neural mechanisms of speed-accuracy tradeoff. Neuron, 76, 616–628. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2012.08.030
15.
HuangY.- Z.EdwardsM. J.RounisE.BhatiaK. P.RothwellJ. C. (2005). Theta burst stimulation of the human motor cortex. Neuron, 45, 201–206. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2004.12.033
16.
IbaM.SawaguchiT. (2003). Involvement of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of monkeys in visuospatial target selection. Journal of Neurophysiology, 89, 587–599. doi:10.1152/jn.00148.2002
17.
KoechlinE.SummerfieldC. (2007). An information theoretical approach to prefrontal executive function. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11, 229–235. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2007.04.005
18.
LiuT.HouY. (2013). A hierarchy of attentional priority signals in human frontoparietal cortex. The Journal of Neuroscience, 33, 16606–16616. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1780-13.2013
19.
MetcalfeJ.ShimamuraA. P. (1994). Metacognition: Knowing about knowing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
20.
MichalkaS. W.KongL.RosenM. L.Shinn-CunninghamB. G.SomersD. C. (2015). Short-term memory for space and time flexibly recruit complementary sensory-biased frontal lobe attention networks. Neuron, 87, 882–892. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2015.07.028
21.
MooreT.ZirnsakM. (2017). Neural mechanisms of selective visual attention. Annual Review of Psychology, 68, 47–72. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033400
22.
NavajasJ.BahramiB.LathamP. E. (2016). Post-decisional accounts of biases in confidence. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 11, 55–60. doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2016.05.005
23.
PeelenM. VKastnerS. (2014). Attention in the real world: Toward understanding its neural basis. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 18, 242–250. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2014.02.004
24.
RahnevD.BahdoL.de LangeF. P.LauH. (2012). Prestimulus hemodynamic activity in dorsal attention network is negatively associated with decision confidence in visual perception. Journal of Neurophysiology, 108, 1529–1536. doi:10.1152/jn.00184.2012
RahnevD.LauH.De LangeF. P. (2011). Prior expectation modulates the interaction between sensory and prefrontal regions in the human brain. Journal of Neuroscience, 31, 10741–10748.
27.
RahnevD.NeeD. E.RiddleJ.LarsonA. S.D’EspositoM. (2016). Causal evidence for frontal cortex organization for perceptual decision making. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 113, 6059–6064. doi:10.1073/pnas.1522551113
28.
RounisE.ManiscalcoB.RothwellJ. C.PassinghamR. E.LauH. (2010). Theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation to the prefrontal cortex impairs metacognitive visual awareness. Cognitive Neuroscience, 1, 165–175. doi:10.1080/17588921003632529
29.
SoN.StuphornV. (2016). Supplementary eye field encodes confidence in decisions under risk. Cerebral Cortex, 26, 764–782. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhv025
30.
SummerfieldC.de LangeF. P. (2014). Expectation in perceptual decision making: Neural and computational mechanisms. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 15, 745–756. doi:10.1038/nrn3838
31.
van den BergR.ZylberbergA.KianiR.ShadlenM. N.WolpertD. M. (2016). Confidence is the bridge between multi-stage decisions. Current Biology, 26, 3157–3168. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.10.021
32.
van VeenV.KrugM. K.CarterC. S. (2008). The neural and computational basis of controlled speed-accuracy tradeoff during task performance. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20, 1952–1965. doi:10.1162/jocn.2008.20146
33.
VernetM.QuentinR.ChanesL.MitsumasuA.Valero-CabréA. (2014). Frontal eye field, where art thou? Anatomy, function, and non-invasive manipulation of frontal regions involved in eye movements and associated cognitive operations. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 8, 66. doi:10.3389/fnint.2014.00066
