Donnerstag, 14. März 2013

Relating introspective accuracy to individual differences in brain structure

Relating introspective accuracy to individual differences in brain structure
Stephen M Fleming et al., 2011
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3173849/


Abstract

Our ability to introspect about self-performance is core to human subjective experience, but the neuroanatomical basis of this ability is unknown. Such accurate introspection requires discriminating correct from incorrect decisions, a capacity that varies substantially across individuals. We dissociated variation in introspective ability from objective performance in a simple perceptual decision task, allowing us to determine whether this inter-individual variability was associated with a distinct neural substrate. We show that introspective ability is correlated with gray matter volume in anterior prefrontal cortex, a region which shows striking evolutionary development in humans. Moreover, inter-individual variability in introspective ability also correlated with white matter microstructure connected with this area of prefrontal cortex. Our findings point to a focal neuroanatomical substrate for introspective ability, a substrate distinct from that supporting primary perception.

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