Discretized representations in V1 predict suboptimal orientation discrimination

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Computational Neuroscience
• Sensory Perception

Background:

• Neuronal population activity in sensory cortices underlies perceptual decisions.
• The relationship between neuronal information content and behavioral reports remains unclear.
• Reconciling neurometric and psychometric performance is crucial for understanding decision-making.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how neuronal information in the primary visual cortex (V1) relates to behavioral reports in a sensory discrimination task.
• To understand the neural mechanisms underlying perceptual decisions.
• To bridge the gap between neural activity and behavioral outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Recorded V1 neuronal activity in mice performing a Go/NoGo orientation discrimination task.
• Analyzed neuronal representations around the discrimination threshold.
• Correlated neuronal activity patterns with decision probabilities.

Main Results:

• V1 neurons did not represent stimulus orientation directly at the discrimination threshold.
• V1 exhibited categorical representations with activity relocation in orientation space.
• Relative neuronal activity in discrete domains predicted decision probabilities.

Conclusions:

• Perceptual decisions may arise from the categorical integration of discretized feature representations from sensory cortices.
• V1's role in decision-making involves categorical, rather than purely continuous, stimulus representation.
• The findings offer a new perspective on how sensory information is transformed into behavioral choices.