It is well-established that increased sensory uncertainty impairs perceptual decision-making and leads to degraded neural stimulus representations. Recently, we also showed that providing unreliable feedback to choices leads to changes in perceptual decision-making similar to those of increased stimulus noise: A deterioration in objective task performance, a decrease in subjective confidence and a lower reliance on sensory information for perceptual inference. To investigate the neural basis of such feedback-based changes in perceptual decision-making, in the present study, two groups of healthy human participants (n = 15 each) performed a challenging visual orientation discrimination task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Critically, one group received reliable feedback regarding their task performance in an intervention phase, whereas the other group correspondingly received unreliable feedback - thereby keeping stimulus information constant. The effects of feedback reliability on performance and stimulus representation in the primary visual cortex (V1) were studied by comparing the pre- and post-intervention test phases between the groups. Compared to participants who received reliable feedback, those receiving unreliable feedback showed a decline in task performance that was paralleled by reduced distinctness of fMRI response patterns in V1. These results show that environmental uncertainty can affect perceptual inference at the earliest cortical processing stages.

中文翻译：

---

不可靠的反馈使初级视觉皮层的信息处理恶化

众所周知，增加的感官不确定性会损害知觉决策并导致神经刺激表征的退化。最近，我们还表明，为选择提供不可靠的反馈会导致感知决策的变化，类似于刺激噪声增加的变化：客观任务表现的恶化、主观信心的降低以及感知推理对感官信息的依赖程度降低。为了研究这种基于反馈的感知决策变化的神经基础，在本研究中，两组健康人类参与者（每组 n = 15）在接受功能性磁共振成像 (fMRI) 时执行了一项具有挑战性的视觉方向辨别任务. 关键的是，一组在干预阶段收到了关于他们的任务表现的可靠反馈，而另一组相应地收到了不可靠的反馈——从而保持刺激信息不变。通过比较两组之间的干预前和干预后测试阶段，研究了反馈可靠性对初级视觉皮层 (V1) 的表现和刺激表现的影响。与收到可靠反馈的参与者相比，那些收到不可靠反馈的参与者表现出任务表现的下降，同时伴随着 V1 中 fMRI 响应模式的清晰度降低。这些结果表明，环境的不确定性会影响最早的皮层加工阶段的知觉推理。而另一组则相应地收到不可靠的反馈——从而保持刺激信息不变。通过比较两组之间的干预前和干预后测试阶段，研究了反馈可靠性对初级视觉皮层 (V1) 的表现和刺激表现的影响。与收到可靠反馈的参与者相比，那些收到不可靠反馈的参与者表现出任务表现的下降，同时伴随着 V1 中 fMRI 响应模式的清晰度降低。这些结果表明，环境的不确定性会影响最早的皮层加工阶段的知觉推理。而另一组则相应地收到不可靠的反馈——从而保持刺激信息不变。通过比较两组之间的干预前和干预后测试阶段，研究了反馈可靠性对初级视觉皮层 (V1) 的表现和刺激表现的影响。与收到可靠反馈的参与者相比，那些收到不可靠反馈的参与者表现出任务表现的下降，同时伴随着 V1 中 fMRI 响应模式的清晰度降低。这些结果表明，环境的不确定性会影响最早的皮层加工阶段的知觉推理。通过比较两组之间的干预前和干预后测试阶段，研究了反馈可靠性对初级视觉皮层 (V1) 的表现和刺激表现的影响。与收到可靠反馈的参与者相比，那些收到不可靠反馈的参与者表现出任务表现的下降，同时伴随着 V1 中 fMRI 响应模式的清晰度降低。这些结果表明，环境的不确定性会影响最早的皮层加工阶段的知觉推理。通过比较两组之间的干预前和干预后测试阶段，研究了反馈可靠性对初级视觉皮层 (V1) 的表现和刺激表现的影响。与收到可靠反馈的参与者相比，那些收到不可靠反馈的参与者表现出任务表现的下降，同时伴随着 V1 中 fMRI 响应模式的清晰度降低。这些结果表明，环境的不确定性会影响最早的皮层加工阶段的知觉推理。