Related Experiment Videos
A role for neural integrators in perceptual decision making
Mark E Mazurek1, Jamie D Roitman, Jochen Ditterich
1Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, and National Primate Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-7290, USA.
Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
|October 25, 2003
Summary
This study models how the brain accumulates sensory evidence over time to make decisions, particularly for motion direction. The model, using neural ensembles, explains how integrated evidence reaching a threshold leads to a decision.
Area of Science:
- Computational Neuroscience
- Decision Making
- Visual Perception
Background:
- Decisions under uncertainty can improve with accumulated information.
- The neural basis of perceptual decision-making, especially concerning motion, is not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if an evidence accumulation process underlies decisions about motion direction.
- To develop a computational model simulating this process in relevant brain areas.
Main Methods:
- Developed a computational model using neural ensembles from visual (MT/V5) and parietal (LIP) areas.
- Modeled neurons integrating sensory signals over time as evidence.
- Decision threshold as the model's decision criterion.
Main Results:
- The model successfully simulates evidence accumulation for motion direction decisions.
- The model's predictions align with observed behavioral and physiological data in monkeys.
Conclusions:
- Neural integration of sensory evidence over time is a plausible mechanism for perceptual decisions.
- Sensorimotor association areas may compute time integrals of visual evidence to reach decisions.