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Microstimulation of visual cortex affects the speed of perceptual decisions

Nature Neuroscience volume 6, pages 891–898 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

Direction-selective neurons in the middle temporal visual area (MT) are crucially involved in motion perception, although it is not known exactly how the activity of these neurons is interpreted by the rest of the brain. Here we report that in a two-alternative task, the activity of MT neurons is interpreted as evidence for one direction and against the other. We measured the speed and accuracy of decisions as rhesus monkeys performed a direction-discrimination task. On half of the trials, we stimulated direction-selective neurons in area MT, thereby causing the monkeys to choose the neurons' preferred direction more often. Microstimulation quickened decisions in favor of the preferred direction and slowed decisions in favor of the opposite direction. Even on trials in which microstimulation did not induce a preferred direction choice, it still affected response times. Our findings suggest that during the formation of a decision, sensory evidence for competing propositions is compared and accumulates to a decision-making threshold.

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Figure 1: Experimental design.
Figure 2: Microstimulation affects choice and response times.
Figure 3: Effect of microstimulation on response time and choice at different electrode sites.
Figure 4: Effect of microstimulation on error response times.
Figure 5: Response times reflect effective difficulty or net uncertainty.
Figure 6: Model of the decision process.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the ARCS Foundation, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DI 819/1-1), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the National Center for Research Resources (RR00166), the National Eye Institute (EY11378) and Poncin. We thank L. Jasinski and M. Mihali for technical assistance and J. Gold, A. Huk and J. Palmer for helpful discussions.

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  1. Department of Physiology & Biophysics, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, National Primate Research Center, University of Washington, 1959 NE Pacific Street, Seattle, 98195, Washington, USA

    Jochen Ditterich, Mark E Mazurek & Michael N Shadlen

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Correspondence to Michael N Shadlen.

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Ditterich, J., Mazurek, M. & Shadlen, M. Microstimulation of visual cortex affects the speed of perceptual decisions. Nat Neurosci 6, 891–898 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1094

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