System Neglect and the Neurocomputational Substrates for Over- and Underreactions to Change

Abstract

AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWThe world constantly changes, with the underlying state of the world shifting from one regime to another. The ability to detect a regime shift, such as the onset of a pandemic or the end of a recession, significantly impacts individual decisions as well as governmental policies. However, determining whether a regime has changed is usually not obvious, as signals are noisy and reflective of the volatility of the environment. We designed an fMRI paradigm that examines a stylized regime-shift detection task. Human participants showed systematic over- and underreaction: Overreaction was most commonly seen when signals were noisy but when environments were stable and change is possible but unlikely. By contrast, underreaction was observed when signals were precise but when environments were unstable and hence change was more likely. These behavioral signatures are consistent with the system-neglect computational hypothesis, which posits that sensitivity or lack thereof to system parameters (noise and volatility) is central to these behavioral biases. Guided by this computational framework, we found that individual subjects sensitivity to system parameters were represented by two distinct brain networks. Whereas a frontoparietal network selectively represented individuals sensitivity to signal noise but not environment volatility, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) showed the opposite pattern. Further, these two networks were involved in different aspects of regime-shift computations: while vmPFC correlated with subjects beliefs about change, the frontoparietal network represented the strength of evidence in favor of regime shifts. Together, these results suggest that regime-shift detection recruits belief-updating and evidence-evaluation networks and that under- and overreactions arise from how sensitive these networks are to the system parameters. SO_SCPLOWIGNIFICANCEC_SCPLOW SO_SCPLOWTATEMENTC_SCPLOWJudging whether the world has changed, from the onset of a market boom to the end of a pandemic, is ubiquitous. The ability to detect regime shifts not only impacts individual decisions but also governmental policies. However, these judgments are hard to make because the signals we receive are noisy and reflective of the volatility of the environment. We find that people overreact to changes when they receive noisy signals in stable environments, but underreact when facing precise signals in unstable environments. Under- and overreactions can be read out by distinct brain networks according to their sensitivity in responding to different environmental parameters that impact regime changes. This suggests that parameter selectivity at the network level guides regime-shift detection.