The importance of decision onset

The neural mechanisms of decision making are thought to require the integration of evidence over time until a response threshold is reached. Much work suggests that response threshold can be adjusted via top-down control as a function of speed or accuracy requirements. In contrast, the time of integration onset has received less attention and is believed to be determined mostly by afferent or preprocessing delays. However, a number of influential studies over the past decade challenge this assumption and begin to paint a multifaceted view of the phenomenology of decision onset. This review highlights the challenges involved in initiating the integration of evidence at the optimal time and the potential benefits of adjusting integration onset to task demands. The review outlines behavioral and electrophysiolgical studies suggesting that the onset of the integration process may depend on properties of the stimulus, the task, attention, and response strategy. Most importantly, the aggregate findings in the literature suggest that integration onset may be amenable to top-down regulation, and may be adjusted much like response threshold to exert cognitive control and strategically optimize the decision process to fit immediate behavioral requirements.