Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Posterior Parietal Cortex Guides Visual Decisions in Rats.

Angela M Licata1, Matthew T Kaufman1, David Raposo1,2

  • 1Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724.

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience
|April 15, 2017
PubMed
Summary

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Lateral Wedge Insoles With and Without Contoured Arch Support for People With Knee Osteoarthritis and Foot Pain: A Pilot, Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial.

Journal of foot and ankle research·2026
Same author

Neural activity profiles reveal overlapping, intermingled subpopulations spanning area borders in mouse sensorimotor cortex.

eLife·2026
Same author

Age-related changes in behavioural and neural variability in a decision-making task.

Nature communications·2026
Same author

Harnessing theoretical neuroscience to understand decision-making across aging.

Current opinion in neurobiology·2026
Same author

Utilization and Outcomes of Permanent Pacemakers After Bicaval Heart Transplantation: A Large Institutional Experience.

Circulation. Arrhythmia and electrophysiology·2026
Same author

Anterior cingulate neurons combine outcome monitoring of past decisions with ongoing movement signals.

Nature communications·2026

The rat posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is crucial for processing visual information, not for accumulating decision evidence. Disrupting PPC selectively impaired visual decisions, indicating its role in sensory processing for decision-making.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Decision-making research
  • Sensory processing

Background:

  • The precise role of neurons in decision-making structures remains unclear due to mixed sensory and decision signals.
  • Identifying brain regions causally involved in decision-making is essential for understanding complex behaviors.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine if the rat posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is essential for visual sensory processing or evidence accumulation in decision-making.
  • To investigate the causal role of PPC in visually-guided versus auditory-guided decisions.

Main Methods:

  • Optogenetic disruption of PPC activity during decision-making tasks.
  • Comparison of decision deficits in tasks using visual versus auditory evidence.
  • Electrophysiological recordings to assess neural responses to visual and auditory stimuli.
Keywords:
decision making

Related Experiment Videos

  • Analysis of trial-to-trial spike count variability during stimulus presentation and decision formation.

    • Main Results:

    • PPC disruption primarily caused deficits in visual decisions, sparing auditory decisions.
    • PPC neurons showed significantly greater modulation by visual stimuli compared to auditory stimuli.
    • Decreased spike count variability suggested network stabilization by inputs, not local evidence accumulation.

    Conclusions:

    • The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) plays a causal role in processing visual sensory signals.
    • PPC contributes to the sensory interpretation of visual information, with evidence accumulation occurring elsewhere.
    • These findings clarify PPC's specific function within neural decision-making circuits.