Representation of a perceptual decision in developing oculomotor commands (original) (raw)

Nature volume 404, pages 390–394 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

Behaviour often depends on the ability to make categorical judgements about sensory information acquired over time. Such judgements require a comparison of the evidence favouring the alternatives1,2,3,4, but how the brain forms these comparisons is unknown. Here we show that in a visual discrimination task, the accumulating balance of sensory evidence favouring one interpretation over another is evident in the neural circuits that generate the behavioural response. We trained monkeys to make a direction judgement about dynamic random-dot motion5 and to indicate their judgement with an eye movement to a visual target. We interrupted motion viewing with electrical microstimulation of the frontal eye field and analysed the resulting, evoked eye movements for evidence of ongoing activity associated with the oculomotor response6,7,8,9,10. Evoked eye movements deviated in the direction of the monkey's judgement. The magnitude of the deviation depended on motion strength and viewing time. The oculomotor signals responsible for these deviations reflected the accumulated motion information that informed the monkey's choices on the discrimination task. Thus, for this task, decision formation and motor preparation appear to share a common level of neural organization.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Mihali for animal training and technical support, and E. Freedman, G. Horwitz, B. Jagadeesh, T. Movshon and F. Rieke for helpful comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the NEI, NCRR and the McKnight Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology and Biophysics, and Regional Primate Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, 98195-7290, Washington , USA
    Joshua I. Gold & Michael N. Shadlen

Authors

  1. Joshua I. Gold
  2. Michael N. Shadlen

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Correspondence toMichael N. Shadlen.

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Gold, J., Shadlen, M. Representation of a perceptual decision in developing oculomotor commands .Nature 404, 390–394 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35006062

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