Figure 1

Schematic of the screens presented to participants in the task used in the experiment (A,B). Time sequence of Metacog (A) and Detect (B) trials, with fixation crosses in red and green indicating the Metacog and Detect task, respectively. The white squares presented above and below the fixation cross in the betting phase corresponded to the risk/reward that participants could take. The upper square corresponded to high-risk/high-return. The lower square corresponded to low-risk/low-return. (C) Dorsal and ventral medial prefrontal cortices (dmPFC and vmPFC, respectively), as well as the medial precuneus region (Pc), showed increased activity during bet selections in the Metacog task compared with when forced to choose one or the other, but no change in activity in an equivalent comparison in the Detect task. (D) Definition of the adaptiveness index. (E) The averages of the adaptiveness index for each participant in ascending order. One white circle corresponds to one participant. (F) Average confidence score for the selected high-risk/high-return and low-risk/low-return trials in the Metacog and Detect tasks. Red bars show the mean value across participants. (G) Interindividual correlations between the adaptiveness index in the Metacog and Detect tasks and scores on a questionnaire on the use of prospective metacognition in everyday life. (H) Interindividual correlation of the adaptiveness index and similar condition difference for vmPFC-dmPFC synchronization (PPI; psychophysiological interaction). (A–D,F–H) were adapted from Yuki et al.¹⁷. (E) was adapted with modification from Yuki et al.^26.