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Updated: May 12, 2026
07:05
Operant Protocols for Assessing the Cost-benefit Analysis During Reinforced Decision Making by Rodents
Published on: September 10, 2018
Rats and humans can optimally accumulate evidence for decision-making
Bingni W Brunton1, Matthew M Botvinick, Carlos D Brody
1Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
Science (New York, N.Y.)
|April 6, 2013
Summary
Noise in decision-making originates from sensory evidence, not memory. Our novel tasks and models reveal that the accumulator
Area of Science:
- Cognitive neuroscience
- Computational neuroscience
- Decision-making research
Background:
- Decision-making involves accumulating evidence, often with noise causing errors.
- The precise source of noise in this process remains unidentified.
Purpose of the Study:
- To pinpoint the origin of noise in evidence accumulation during decision-making.
- To differentiate between noise in sensory input and internal memory processes.
Main Methods:
- Developed novel decision-making tasks with randomly timed sensory evidence pulses.
- Utilized computational models analyzing trial-by-trial pulse timing.
- Quantified noise in memory versus sensory evidence separately.
Main Results:
- The accumulator's memory was found to be noiseless in both rats and humans.
- Variability primarily stemmed from the addition of new sensory evidence.
- The novel task and modeling approach successfully isolated noise sources.
Conclusions:
- Sensory evidence, not memory, is the main source of noise in this decision-making model.
- The developed methodology offers a robust way to investigate internal decision-making mechanisms.
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