Perceptual decision-making

…this logic in rats performing a perceptual decision-making task, we recorded simultaneously from thousands of neurons across up to 20 brain regions at once. Here we report two internal signals wh

…are reorganized when mice perform perceptual decision-making tasks that involve different underlying computations and vary in complexity. However, the circuit mechanisms enabling such large-scale activity reorganization remain unknown. An interesting possibility is that they depend on neuromodulatory input to the cortex. In particular, cholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain project widely across cortical areas while exhibiting topographical and functional heterogeneity. They are therefore well equipped to serve as an orchestrator

The mammalian striatum is critically involved in perceptual decision-making, where disrupted dopamine transmission leads to perceptual disturbances such as hallucinations. The precise mechanism by which striatal dopamine contributes to perceptual decisions is not known. We investigated this by developing a circuit model in which perceptual learning and value learning are implemented in parallel corticostriatal loops to inform action selection. Previous models of corticostriatal plasticity have focused primarily on how reward prediction errors signaled by dopamine enable value learning in the v

In schizophrenia, disrupted perceptual processes are attributed to both hallucinations and delusions in positive symptoms [1, 2]. However, it remains unclear how top-down and bottom-up processes are represented across a visual hierarchy related to distinct symptoms, such as hallucinations, delusions, and negative symptoms. Our goal is to identify the visual areas involved in aberrant top-down and bottom-up processes that contribute to distinct symptoms in schizophrenia. To investigate this, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment with a perceptual decision-making

Perceptual decision-making involves interpreting sensory information to guide actions. Incoming sensory information must often be assessed in the context of other relevant information held in working memory. Despite this interdependence, the neural basis of working memory and perceptual decision-making have largely been studied separately. Thus, how the brain flexibly combines sensory information with information in memory to form decisions remains unknown. To study this interaction, we developed a novel behavioral task in which monkeys hold a set of color images in working memory as context,

Ongoing neural activity fluctuates over a broad range of timescales. Variations in intrinsic timescales across the forebrain relate to the functional specialization of cortical areas along the visual hierarchy [1, 2]. Furthermore, these timescales adapt to task demands, for example, during selective attention [3] and working memory [4] tasks. However, the distribution of timescales and their relationship to brain structure and behavior have not been characterized beyond the forebrain, despite the evolutionary relevance of midbrain and hindbrain areas. These areas are preserved across different

…information impacts perception and decision-making. Previous studies indicate that predicting others’ actions improves with real-time observation of their movements [3]. Additionally, game-theoretic simulations show that real-time feedback leads to leader-follower behavior, where one agent acts and t

Recent studies have proposed that neural circuits have a $\textit{task manifold}$: i.e., a subset of the neural state-space to which neural activity is confined as an animal performs a task [1]. Thus, discovering and characterising these manifolds and their associated dynamics from experimental data can shed light on the neural computations unfolding within the brain during various cognitive tasks. Yet, common manifold discovery methods often do not take into account that neural data is generated by an underlying dynamical system. To address this, we first derive a general class of manifolds t

Perception requires integrating noisy dynamic visual information across the visual field to identify relevant stimuli and guide decisions. While temporal integration has been studied extensively in experiments with highly controlled visual stimuli and reverse-correlation techniques, the nonlinear mechanisms underlying spatial integration are often neglected. More concretely, neurons in the Middle Temporal area (MT) respond heterogeneously and nonlinearly to stimuli inside their receptive fields (RFs) [1-3], and these neurophysiological properties could mediate spatial suppression of motion obs

…interact to determine the course of perceptual decision-making. However, although numerous theories emphasize an important role for interoceptive inference in shaping our exteroceptive perception, there is as yet no evidence as to how visceral rhythms modulate the interaction between priors and input.Using a novel perceptual learning task, we analysed how cyclic fluctuations of visceral signals in the cardiac domain influence affective perceptu

Listeners benefit from integrating prior beliefs with auditory sensory signals according to their relative reliability to reduce effects of stochastic noise. In volatile environments, however, listeners should not integrate when a change of signal source renders their prior beliefs irrelevant. Bayesian causal inference could provide the brain with an optimal strategy for adaptively adjusting its reliance on priors. Mechanistically, it has been suggested that the arousal system modulates the weights between prior and likelihoodaccordingly. We tested these hypotheses in an auditory localization

…that underlie this survival-linked perceptual decision-making are of significant interest, but poorly understood.To identify the underlying neural mechanisms of these motivational state dependent decisions, we used the mollusc, Lymnaea stagnalis, whose behaviours have been extensively characte

…distributed array of brain regions in perceptual decision-making. However, identifying primary decision-forming regions as distinct from sensory encoding and motor activity that correlate them has been challenging, in significant part due to uncertainty in the identifying criteria applied. Here we applied the paradigms and criteria previously used to identify an EEG signature of motor-independent evidence accumulation (O'Connell, Dockree, & Kelly 2012), in an fMRI study. It involved a mental counting task assessing vi

…We devised a perceptual decision-making task where thermal stimuli were applied to 16 participants' forearms, with temperatures increasing or decreasing fro

A major problem in identifying consistent neural markers underlying perceptual decision-making is that decisions are mostly inextricably linked to task-related confounds such as motor responses. By disentangling the choice content from choice direction and the physical response, we showed in prior studies that vibrotactile decision content is nevertheless most likely represented effector-specific (i.e. in brain areas associated to the required motor response). In the current study we used a visual adaptation of the delayed match-to-comparison task to test whether perceptual decisions would be

Perceptual decision-making involves interpreting external stimuli and selecting the most appropriate response. Success depends on cognitive control, which includes processes like attention, working-memory, and inhibitory control regulated by differential responses of fronto-parietal networks. However, the effects on behavior and neural activity of mental fatigue induced by sustained cognitive control are still unclear. Here we show that sustained cognitive load alters cortical dynamics, leading to faster, automatic responses and hence to an increased error rate. We acquired continuous hd-EEG d

…influence sensory processing and perceptual decision-making. In a two-whisker discrimination task performed by water-restricted mice, we observed that thirst-induced motivation significantly impacts task performance and modulates cortical sensory representations in the somatosensory

During perceptual decision-making, neural circuits can accumulate decision evidence and maintain the choice in short-term memory until the motor response. Previous modelling work has proposed that recurrent circuit dynamics underlie these two processes and that N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are necessary for proper network function. Electrophysiological evidence indicates that circuits in the frontal cortex may carry out these computations but the role of NMDAR has not been systematically tested. We developed an auditory two-alternative delayed-choice (2ADC) task for head-fixed mice

Perceptual decision-making has often been studied using sensory-to-motor transformation tasks. Shushruth et al. (2022) showed in a visual motion discrimination task (Fig. A) that neurons in the lateral intraparietal cortex (LIP) of two monkeys exhibited delayed evidence-based responses, activating only upon choice target onset after the motion stimulus (Fig. B-C). The LIP neurons were hypothesised to have retrieved information via short-term memory. However, how this was achieved remains unclear.In this work, we extended the nonlinear mean-field model of Wong and Wang (2006) by incorporating a

Decision-making can be defined as cognitive process based on the selection of a goal-directed action from a set of choices. In perceptual decision-making, this behavior guiding choice relies on sensory information. The associative part of the striatum has been proposed to be essential for such decision-making processes, in particular to select the appropriate action plan according to the sensory evidence. Parvalbumin interneurons (PVI) in the associative striatum may have a crucial role in this action plan selection despite their low numbers. Indeed, by inhibiting striatal processing, PVI may

…including long-term and short-term perceptual history. According to predictive processing, psychosis can be explained as a reduced weighting of priors relative to sensory information. This study investigated how short-term priors from different sources are used in perceptual decision-making and how psychosis proneness (PP) modulates the use of these priors.Across two online experiments, 101 healthy participants completed an auditory percep

When completing a task for a prolonged period, our ability to sustain attention fluctuates over time. In mice, errors and biased responses cluster in time rather than occurring randomly, indicating that animals transition into and out of disengaged states over the course of an experimental session. What neural and physiological processes trigger these state transitions? Here, we investigated the role of pupil-linked arousal, as relatively high or low levels of arousal are associated with poor task performance, and there is evidence that the activity of ascending arousal systems triggers larges

…and outcomes is crucial for adaptive perceptual decision-making. A key brain area supporting this ability is the striatum, which receives extensive signals from several cortical areas. These cortico-striatal pathways are shaped by two neuromodulators, dopamine and acetylcholine, whose levels are among the highest in the brain. Yet, how dopamine and acetylcholine interact to facilitate adaptive perceptual decision-making is unclear. To address this question, we characterized dopamine and acetylcholine release in the dorsolateral

…cognitive process is known as perceptual decision-making. The decision-making is typically preceded by the gathering of information across time in a process called evidence accumulation. This has been widely studied on various animals; however, in flies, the emphasis has primarily been centered on the subcellular integration mechanisms, overlooking the behavioral impacts and whole-brain neuronal dynamics.Here, we