Biology subjects

Gluth, S.

Publications and source records attributed to Gluth, S..

6 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Fixation-evoked potentials reveal neural signatures of hierarchical belief-updating during decision-making

Many decisions require maintaining beliefs across multiple levels of representation, from sampling and integrating information to forming action plans. To elucidate these processes and reveal the neural mechanisms supporting them under naturalistic free-viewing conditions, we combined EEG and eye-tracking in a multi-attribute choice task. Leveraging our recently developed Multi-Attribute Search and Choice (MASC) model, we generated fixation-level predictions for value-belief updating processes encompassing attribute, option, and preference states. Behavioral and eye-tracking data confirmed search and choice dynamics as predicted by MASC. Crucially, fixation-evoked potentials (FEPs) revealed distinct neural signatures along the processing hierarchy. While attribute-level and option-level updates were reflected in an early fronto-central positivity and a centro-parietal positivity, respectively, emerging preferences were expressed in lateralized motor-preparatory activity. Our preregistered study elucidates a hierarchy of neural belief-updating processes linking information sampling to decision formation and opens new research avenues for investigating neural attention and choice dynamics in naturalistic free-viewing paradigms.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2026

Humans integrate gaze and decision cues for inferring preferences in social interactions

Social decision-making depends on inferring others hidden preferences from observable behavior. Yet it remains unclear how humans combine choices with process cues such as response times and gaze when learning about others in real-time interaction. Here we combine a novel multi-attribute bargaining task with eye-tracking and show that multiple decision-process cues support preference inference. Across 75 buyer-seller dyads, buyers acceptance rates tracked offer utility, rejection speed reflected decision confidence, and first fixations preferentially targeted the highest-weighted attribute. Sellers adapted subsequent offers using choices, response times, and, when available, gaze cues. A hierarchical inference and choice model suggested that sellers balanced expected utility with expected information gain and updated their beliefs in a Bayesian manner. Although gaze access did not improve overall performance, it changed how sellers used attentional information. These findings shed light on how humans infer others hidden preferences from decision dynamics in real-time social interaction.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Episodic memory retrieval affects the onset and dynamics of evidence accumulation during value-based decisions

AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWIn neuroeconomics, there is much interest in understanding simple value-based choices where agents choose between visually presented goods, comparable to a shopping scenario in a supermarket. However, many everyday decisions are made in the physical absence of the considered goods, requiring agents to recall information about the goods from memory. Here, we asked whether and how this reliance on an internal memory representation affects the temporal dynamics of decision making on a cognitive and neural level. Participants performed a remember-and-decide task, in which they made simple purchasing decisions between money offers and snack items while undergoing EEG. Snack identity was presented either visually (value trials) or had to be recalled from memory (memory trials). Behavioral data indicated comparable choice consistency across both trial types, but considerably longer response times (RT) in memory trials. Drift-diffusion modeling suggested that this RT difference was due to longer non-decision time of decision processes as well as altered evidence accumulation dynamics (lower accumulation rate and higher decision threshold). The non-decision time effect was supported by a delayed onset of the lateralized readiness potential. These results show that both, decision and non-decision processes are prolonged when participants need to resort to internal memory representations during value-based decisions.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Disentangling choice value and choice conflict in sequential decisions under risk

Recent years have witnessed a surge of interest in understanding the neural and cognitive dynamics that drive sequential decision making in general and foraging behavior in particular. Due to the intrinsic properties of most sequential decision-making paradigms, however, previous research in this area has suffered from the difficulty to disentangle properties of the decision related to (a) the value of switching to a new patch versus (b) the conflict experienced between choosing to stay or leave. Here, we show how the same problems arise in studies of sequential decision-making under risk, and how they can be overcome, taking as a specific example recent research on the pig dice game. In each round of the pig dice game, people roll a die and accumulate rewards until they either decide to proceed to the next round or lose all rewards. By combining simulation-based dissections of the task structure with two experiments, we show how an extension of the standard paradigm, together with cognitive modeling of decision-making processes, disentangles value-from conflict-related choice properties. Our study elucidates the cognitive mechanisms of sequential decision making and underscores the importance of avoiding potential pitfalls of paradigms that are commonly used in this research area.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2019

The role of dopaminergic nuclei in predicting and experiencing gains and losses: A 7T human fMRI study

The ability to predict the outcomes of actions based on experience is crucial for making successful decisions in new or dynamic environments. In animal studies using electrophysiology, it was found that dopamine neurons, located in the substantia nigra (SN) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA), have a crucial role in feedback-based learning. However, human neuroimaging studies have provided inconclusive results. The present work used ultrahigh field (7 Tesla) structural and functional MRI and optimized protocols to extract SN and VTA signals in human participants. In a number-guessing task, we found significant correlations with reward prediction error and risk in both the SN and the VTA and no correlation with expected value. We also found a surprise signal in the SN. These results are in line with a recent framework that proposed a differential role for the VTA and the SN in, respectively, learning of values and surprise.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

Leave-One-Trial-Out (LOTO): A General Approach to Link Single-Trial Parameters of Cognitive Models to Neural Data

It has become a key goal of model-based neuroscience to estimate trial-by-trial fluctuations of cognitive model parameters for linking these fluctuations to brain signals. However, previously developed methods were limited by being difficulty to implement, time-consuming, or model-specific. Here, we propose an easy, efficient and general approach to estimating trial-wise changes in parameters: Leave-One-Trial-Out (LOTO). The rationale behind LOTO is that the difference between the parameter estimates for the complete dataset and for the dataset with one omitted trial reflects the parameter value in the omitted trial. We show that LOTO is superior to estimating parameter values from single trials and compare it to previously proposed approaches. Furthermore, the method allows distinguishing true variability in a parameter from noise and from variability in other parameters. In our view, the practicability and generality of LOTO will advance research on tracking fluctuations in latent cognitive variables and linking them to neural data.

neuroscience↗