The neural basis of feedback-guided behavioral adjustment

Given feedback on the outcomes of our choices, humans can then make adjustments to future decisions. This is how we learn. However, how knowing the outcome of one's decisions influences behavioral changes, and especially the neural basis of those behavioral changes, still remains unclear. To investigate these questions, we employed a simple gambling task, in which participants chose between two alternative cards and received trial-by-trial feedback of their choices. In different sessions, we emphasized either utility (win or loss) or performance (whether the choice was correct [better than the alternative] or incorrect), making one of the two aspects more salient to participants. We found that trial-by-trial feedback and the saliency of the feedback modulated behavioral adjustments and subjective evaluations of the outcomes. With simultaneous electroencephalogram (EEG) recording, we found that the feedback-related negativity (FRN), P300, and late positive potential (LPP) served as the neural substrates for behavioral decision switching. Together, our findings reveal the neural basis of behavioral adjustment based on outcome evaluation and highlight the key role of feedback evaluation in future action selection and flexible adaptation.