The neural mechanism underlying the effects of preceding contexts on current categorization decisions

Abstract

Preceding contexts strongly influence current decision-making. To elucidate the neural mechanism that underlies this phenomenon, magnetoencephalographic signals were recorded while participants performed a binary categorization task on a sequence of facial expressions. The behavioral data indicated that the categorization of current facial expressions differed between the contexts shaped by the immediately preceding expression. We found that the effects of the preceding context were linked to prestimulus power activities in the low-frequency band. However, these context-dependent neural markers did not reflect behavioral decisions. Rather, the beta power observed primarily after stimulus onset and located at distinct sensors was predictive of the trial-by-trial decisions. Despite these results, the coupling strength between context-dependent and decision-related power differed between preceding contexts, suggesting that the context-dependent power interacted with decision-related power in a systemic manner and in turn biased behavioral decisions. Taken together, these findings suggest that categorization decisions are mediated by a series of power activities that coordinate the influence of preceding contexts on current categorization.