Neural correlates of information gain during search revealed by fMRI.

IF 4.5 2区综合性期刊 Q1 MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES

iScience Pub Date : 2026-09-09 eCollection Date: 2026-09-18 DOI:10.1016/j.isci.2026.117445

Sakrapee Paisalnan, Yashar Moshfeghi, Frank Pollick

{"title":"Neural correlates of information gain during search revealed by fMRI.","authors":"Sakrapee Paisalnan, Yashar Moshfeghi, Frank Pollick","doi":"10.1016/j.isci.2026.117445","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>When confronted with uncertainty, humans engage in information-seeking behavior to gather sufficient information. Identifying the brain regions involved offers insight into the underlying cognitive mechanisms. Using Shannon information theory, we quantified the information contained in the image tiles presented in an fMRI experiment. Nineteen participants judged whether a caption described an image by viewing a sequence of tiles and signaling when it matched. Random-effects ANOVA and representational similarity analysis revealed that regions associated with information gain resulted in two complementary patterns. The first, involving right Ph2 and left hIP5, showed a graded relationship with information gain, consistent with tracking currently available perceptual evidence. The second, involving bilateral PGp with left hIP3 and left FG2, was more sensitive to intermediate information gain, possibly reflecting integrative processes relating accumulated visual information to task-relevant semantic expectations. These findings offer a neurocognitive framework for how information is acquired and evaluated during a sequential search.</p>","PeriodicalId":342,"journal":{"name":"iScience","volume":"29 9","pages":"117445"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5000,"publicationDate":"2026-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13581990/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"iScience","FirstCategoryId":"103","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2026.117445","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2026/9/18 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

When confronted with uncertainty, humans engage in information-seeking behavior to gather sufficient information. Identifying the brain regions involved offers insight into the underlying cognitive mechanisms. Using Shannon information theory, we quantified the information contained in the image tiles presented in an fMRI experiment. Nineteen participants judged whether a caption described an image by viewing a sequence of tiles and signaling when it matched. Random-effects ANOVA and representational similarity analysis revealed that regions associated with information gain resulted in two complementary patterns. The first, involving right Ph2 and left hIP5, showed a graded relationship with information gain, consistent with tracking currently available perceptual evidence. The second, involving bilateral PGp with left hIP3 and left FG2, was more sensitive to intermediate information gain, possibly reflecting integrative processes relating accumulated visual information to task-relevant semantic expectations. These findings offer a neurocognitive framework for how information is acquired and evaluated during a sequential search.

查看原文本刊更多论文

功能磁共振成像显示搜索过程中信息获取的神经关联。

当面对不确定性时，人类会采取信息寻求行为来收集足够的信息。识别相关的大脑区域有助于深入了解潜在的认知机制。利用香农信息理论，我们量化了fMRI实验中图像块所包含的信息。19名参与者通过观看一系列图片并在匹配时发出信号来判断标题是否描述了图像。随机效应方差分析和代表性相似性分析显示，与信息增益相关的区域导致两种互补模式。第一个涉及到右侧的Ph2和左侧的hIP5，显示出与信息增益的分级关系，与跟踪当前可用的感知证据一致。第二组涉及左hIP3和左FG2的双侧PGp，对中间信息获得更敏感，可能反映了将累积的视觉信息与任务相关的语义期望联系起来的综合过程。这些发现为在顺序搜索过程中如何获取和评估信息提供了一个神经认知框架。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

iScience Multidisciplinary-Multidisciplinary

CiteScore

7.20

自引率

1.70%

发文量

1972

审稿时长

6 weeks

期刊介绍： Science has many big remaining questions. To address them, we will need to work collaboratively and across disciplines. The goal of iScience is to help fuel that type of interdisciplinary thinking. iScience is a new open-access journal from Cell Press that provides a platform for original research in the life, physical, and earth sciences. The primary criterion for publication in iScience is a significant contribution to a relevant field combined with robust results and underlying methodology. The advances appearing in iScience include both fundamental and applied investigations across this interdisciplinary range of topic areas. To support transparency in scientific investigation, we are happy to consider replication studies and papers that describe negative results. We know you want your work to be published quickly and to be widely visible within your community and beyond. With the strong international reputation of Cell Press behind it, publication in iScience will help your work garner the attention and recognition it merits. Like all Cell Press journals, iScience prioritizes rapid publication. Our editorial team pays special attention to high-quality author service and to efficient, clear-cut decisions based on the information available within the manuscript. iScience taps into the expertise across Cell Press journals and selected partners to inform our editorial decisions and help publish your science in a timely and seamless way.