Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 2, 2025
05:15
The Spatial Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
Published on: February 19, 2018
10.9K
A conflict between spatial selection and evidence accumulation in area LIP
Joshua A Seideman1, Terrence R Stanford1, Emilio Salinas2
1Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, 1 Medical Center Blvd., Winston-Salem, NC, 27157-1010, USA.
Nature Communications
|August 1, 2022
Summary
The lateral intraparietal area (LIP) may not accumulate evidence for eye movements as previously thought. Instead, spatial selection in LIP might conflict with evidence accumulation, suggesting a more complex role in decision-making.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Oculomotor Research
Background:
- The lateral intraparietal area (LIP) is traditionally understood to accumulate sensory evidence for guiding eye movements (saccades).
- This accumulation model suggests LIP neurons integrate evidence favoring one choice (e.g., leftward saccade) over another (e.g., rightward saccade).
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the functional link between spatial selection in LIP and evidence accumulation during decision-making.
- To examine how LIP neuronal activity relates to choice accuracy and sensory evidence in a dynamic task.
Main Methods:
- Trained two monkeys on an urgent motion discrimination task.
- Tracked neuronal activity in LIP and subject choices millisecond by millisecond.
- Analyzed the relationship between sensory evidence, LIP selection signals, and choice accuracy.
Main Results:
- Choice accuracy improved with increasing sensory evidence.
- The LIP selection signal weakened as accuracy increased, seemingly hindering performance.
- This weakening correlated with attention shifting away from the relevant sensory cue.
Conclusions:
- Spatial selection in LIP is dissociable from evidence accumulation.
- LIP's spatial selection mechanism may conflict with evidence accumulation during informed saccadic choices.
- These findings challenge the traditional view of LIP's role in decision-making and highlight the dynamic nature of attention.
Related Concept Videos
01:46Types of Selection
41.3K
Natural selection influences the frequencies of particular alleles and phenotypes within populations in several different ways. Primarily, natural selection can be directional, stabilizing, or disruptive. Directional selection favors one extreme trait and shifts the population towards that phenotype while selecting against individuals displaying alternate traits. Stabilizing selection favors an intermediate trait with a narrow range of variation. Deviation from the optimal phenotype towards an...
41.3K
01:38Limits to Natural Selection
31.9K
Organisms that are well-adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. However, natural selection does not lead to perfectly adapted organisms. Several factors constrain natural selection.
31.9K
01:21Frequency-dependent Selection
22.2K
When the fitness of a trait is influenced by how common it is (i.e., its frequency) relative to different traits within a population, this is referred to as frequency-dependent selection. Frequency-dependent selection may occur between species or within a single species. This type of selection can either be positive—with more common phenotypes having higher fitness—or negative, with rarer phenotypes conferring increased fitness.
22.2K
02:55The Evidence for Evolution
43.4K
Genetic variations accumulating within populations over generations give rise to biological evolution. Evolutionary changes can result in the formation of novel varieties and entire new species. These changes are responsible for the diverse forms of life inhabiting the planet. The evidence for evolution suggests that all living organisms descended from common ancestors.
43.4K
01:31Confirmation Biases
6.6K
The confirmation bias is the tendency to focus on information that confirms our existing beliefs and ignore information that is inconsistent with our expectations. For example, if you think that your professor is not very nice, you notice all of the instances of rude behavior exhibited by the professor while ignoring the countless pleasant interactions he is involved in on a daily basis. Have you ever fallen prey to the confirmation bias, either as the source or target of such bias?
6.6K
02:34Competition
22.1K
When organisms require the same limited resources within an environment, they may have to compete for them. Competition is a net-negative interaction. Even if two competing individuals or populations do not interact directly, the overall fitness of both competitors is lowered as a result of not having full access to the limited resource.
22.1K