How individuals process and respond to uncertainty has important implications for cognition and mental health. Here, we use computational phenotyping to examine inter-individual differences in uncertainty processing in relation to neurometabolites and trait anxiety in humans. We introduce a categorical state-transition extension of the Hierarchical Gaussian Filter to model individuals' evolving beliefs about transition probabilities in a four-choice probabilistic sensorimotor learning task with a reversal. Using 7-Tesla Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, we measure neurotransmitter levels in the primary motor cortex. Model-based results reveal dynamic belief updating in response to environmental changes. We further find region-specific relationships between baseline primary motor cortex glutamate+ glutamine levels and prediction errors and volatility beliefs. High trait anxiety is associated with faster post-reversal responses. This study establishes a direct neurochemical correlate of hierarchical belief updating, identifying motor cortex glutamate + glutamine as an important neural marker of inter-individual differences in uncertainty processing.
Journal article
2025-11-04T00:00:00+00:00
16
Motor Cortex, Humans, Uncertainty, Glutamic Acid, Male, Glutamine, Female, Adult, Young Adult, Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Anxiety, Neurochemistry