Imagining the future self through thought experiments

Reward monitoring in the frontopolar cortex of macaques

Reward processing involves several prefrontal cortex areas, enabling individuals to learn from behavioral outcomes and shape decisions. However, the role of the frontopolar cortex (FPC) in these processes remains unclear due to limited single-neuron research. In this study, we recorded neural activity from the FPC of two macaques performing a fast-learning task, the object-in-place reward task, which examined how reward size affects learning. Results showed that FPC feedback monitoring activity extends to the value of specific choices. Moreover, once the association between scenes and reward had been learned, FPC neural activity before choice reflected the future animal's behavior to stay or to switch on their previous behavioral strategy, i.e., to choose the same target or the other one. These results suggest that FPC neurons integrated information for action monitoring and later reprocessed it to decide the best behavioral strategy to adopt, determining whether to maintain or change the action plan.

Asymmetric projection of introspection reveals a behavioural and neural mechanism for interindividual social coordination

When we collaborate with others to tackle novel problems, we anticipate how they will perform their part of the task to coordinate behavior effectively. We might estimate how well someone else will perform by extrapolating from estimates of how well we ourselves would perform. This account predicts that our metacognitive model should make accurate predictions when projected onto people as good as, or worse than, us but not on those whose abilities exceed our own. We demonstrate just such a pattern and that it leads to worse coordination when working with people more skilled than ourselves. Metacognitive projection is associated with a specific activity pattern in anterior lateral prefrontal cortex (alPFC47). Manipulation of alPFC47 activity altered metacognitive projection and impaired interpersonal social coordination. By contrast, monitoring of other individuals' observable performance and outcomes is associated with a distinct pattern of activity in the posterior temporal parietal junction (TPJp).

Neural circuits for retrospective and prospective introspection for the past, present and future in macaque monkeys and humans

For animals, including humans, to have self-awareness, the ability to reflect on one's own perceptions and cognitions, which is known as metacognition, and an understanding of consistency of the self from the past to the present and into the future based on metacognition is essential. Through the mediation of self-consciousness, animals are thought to be able to proactively act to change their environment rather than passively responding to changes in their environment. However, it has not been known whether animals have self-awareness, and, if so, how it is implemented neurobiologically. In this review article, I introduce our studies examining the neural basis of metacognitive abilities for past, present, and future actions in macaque monkeys and humans, and explore the evolutionary origins of self-awareness.