Uncertainty is often inevitable in everyday life and can be both stressful and exciting. Given its relevance to psychopathology and wellbeing, recent research has begun to address the brain basis of uncertainty. In the current review we examined whether there are discrete and shared neural signatures for different uncertain contexts. From the literature we identified three broad categories of uncertainty currently empirically studied using functional MRI (fMRI): basic threat and reward uncertainty, decision-making under uncertainty, and associative learning under uncertainty. We examined the neural basis of each category by using a coordinate based meta-analysis, where brain activation foci from previously published fMRI experiments were drawn together (1998–2017; 87 studies). The analyses revealed shared and discrete patterns of neural activation for uncertainty, such as the insula and amygdala, depending on the category. Such findings will have relevance for researchers attempting to conceptualise uncertainty, as well as clinical researchers examining the neural basis of uncertainty in relation to psychopathology.

在日常生活中，不确定性通常是不可避免的，可能既令人压力又令人兴奋。鉴于其与心理病理学和幸福感相关，最近的研究已开始着手解决不确定性的大脑基础。在当前的审查中，我们检查了针对不同不确定上下文的离散神经和共享神经签名。从文献中，我们确定了目前使用功能性MRI（fMRI）进行经验研究的不确定性的三大类：基本威胁和报酬不确定性，不确定性下的决策以及不确定性下的联想学习。我们通过基于坐标的荟萃分析检查了每个类别的神经基础，其中将先前发表的功能磁共振成像实验的大脑激活灶集中在一起（1998-2017； 87项研究）。分析揭示了不确定性的神经激活的共享和离散模式，例如绝缘体和杏仁核，具体取决于类别。这些发现对试图将不确定性概念化的研究人员，以及研究与心理病理学相关的不确定性神经基础的临床研究人员均具有重要意义。