ArticleNature communications2020
Unconscious reinforcement learning of hidden brain states supported by confidence.
Article in Nature communications, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Brain-AI convergence: Generative world models and hierarchical attention for human intelligence.Patterns (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Review
- Orbitofrontal-sensory cortical interactions in learning and adaptive decision-making.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2026Review
- A habit and working memory model as an alternative account of human reward-based learning.Nature human behaviour · 2026Article
- Touch-driven advantages in reaction time but not in performance in a cross-sensory comparison of reinforcement learning.Heliyon · 2025Article
- Video-evoked neuromarkers of visual function in age-related macular degeneration.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Decoding and modifying dynamic attentional bias in gaming disorder.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Mechanisms of brain self-regulation: psychological factors, mechanistic models and neural substrates.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Time-dependent neural arbitration between cue associative and episodic fear memories.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Interaction between the prefrontal and visual cortices supports subjective fear.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Neural and computational underpinnings of biased confidence in human reinforcement learning.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Value certainty and choice confidence are multidimensional constructs that guide decision-making.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2023Article
- Self-regulation learning as active inference: dynamic causal modeling of an fMRI neurofeedback task.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
- Advanced Reinforcement Learning and Its Connections with Brain Neuroscience.Research (Washington, D.C.) · 2023Article
- Spontaneous instrumental avoidance learning in social contexts.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Reading text works better than watching videos to improve acuity in a simulation of artificial vision.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- From internal models toward metacognitive AI.Biological cybernetics · 2021Article
- Value signals guide abstraction during learning.eLife · 2021Article
- Putamen volume predicts real-time fMRI neurofeedback learning success across paradigms and neurofeedback target regions.Human brain mapping · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Can humans be trained to make strategic use of latent representations in their own brains? We investigate how human subjects can derive reward-maximizing choices from intrinsic high-dimensional information represented stochastically in neural activity. Reward contingencies are defined in real-time by fMRI multivoxel patterns; optimal action policies thereby depend on multidimensional brain activity taking place below the threshold of consciousness, by design. We find that subjects can solve the task within two hundred trials and errors, as their reinforcement learning processes interact with metacognitive functions (quantified as the meaningfulness of their decision confidence). Computational modelling and multivariate analyses identify a frontostriatal neural mechanism by which the brain may untangle the 'curse of dimensionality': synchronization of confidence representations in prefrontal cortex with reward prediction errors in basal ganglia support exploration of latent task representations. These results may provide an alternative starting point for future investigations into unconscious learning and functions of metacognition.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.