1
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Luo TZ, Kim TD, Gupta D, Bondy AG, Kopec CD, Elliot VA, DePasquale B, Brody CD. Transitions in dynamical regime and neural mode underlie perceptual decision-making. bioRxiv 2023:2023.10.15.562427. [PMID: 37904994 PMCID: PMC10614809 DOI: 10.1101/2023.10.15.562427] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2023]
Abstract
Perceptual decision-making is the process by which an animal uses sensory stimuli to choose an action or mental proposition. This process is thought to be mediated by neurons organized as attractor networks 1,2 . However, whether attractor dynamics underlie decision behavior and the complex neuronal responses remains unclear. Here we use an unsupervised, deep learning-based method to discover decision-related dynamics from the simultaneous activity of neurons in frontal cortex and striatum of rats while they accumulate pulsatile auditory evidence. We show that contrary to prevailing hypotheses, attractors play a role only after a transition from a regime in the dynamics that is strongly driven by inputs to one dominated by the intrinsic dynamics. The initial regime mediates evidence accumulation, and the subsequent intrinsic-dominant regime subserves decision commitment. This regime transition is coupled to a rapid reorganization in the representation of the decision process in the neural population (a change in the "neural mode" along which the process develops). A simplified model approximating the coupled transition in the dynamics and neural mode allows inferring, from each trial's neural activity, the internal decision commitment time in that trial, and captures diverse and complex single-neuron temporal profiles, such as ramping and stepping 3-5 . It also captures trial-averaged curved trajectories 6-8 , and reveals distinctions between brain regions. Our results show that the formation of a perceptual choice involves a rapid, coordinated transition in both the dynamical regime and the neural mode of the decision process, and suggest pairing deep learning and parsimonious models as a promising approach for understanding complex data.
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2
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Jiang Y, He S, Zhang J. Different roles of response covariability and its attentional modulation in the sensory cortex and posterior parietal cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2216942120. [PMID: 37812698 PMCID: PMC10589615 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2216942120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2022] [Accepted: 08/16/2023] [Indexed: 10/11/2023] Open
Abstract
The covariability of neural responses in the neuron population is highly relevant to the information encoding. Cognitive processes, such as attention, are found to modulate the covariability in the visual cortex to improve information encoding, suggesting the computational advantage of covariability modulation in the neural system. However, is the covariability modulation a general mechanism for enhanced information encoding throughout the information processing pathway, or only adopted in certain processing stages, depending on the property of neural representation? Here, with ultrahigh-field MRI, we examined the covariability, which was estimated by noise correlation, in different attention states in the early visual cortex and posterior parietal cortex (PPC) of the human brain, and its relationship to the quality of information encoding. Our results showed that while attention decreased the covariability to improve the stimulus encoding in the early visual cortex, covariability modulation was not observed in the PPC, where covariability had little impact on information encoding. Further, attention promoted the information flow between the early visual cortex and PPC, with an apparent emphasis on a flow from high- to low-dimensional representations, suggesting the existence of a reduction in the dimensionality of neural representation from the early visual cortex to PPC. Finally, the neural response patterns in the PPC could predict the amplitudes of covariability change in the early visual cortex, indicating a top-down control from the PPC to early visual cortex. Our findings reveal the specific roles of the sensory cortex and PPC during attentional modulation of covariability, determined by the complexity and fidelity of the neural representation in each cortical region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yong Jiang
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing100101, China
| | - Sheng He
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing100101, China
- Institute of AI, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei230088, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing100049, China
| | - Jiedong Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing100101, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing100049, China
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3
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Bevilacqua M, Huxlin KR, Hummel FC, Raffin E. Pathway and directional specificity of Hebbian plasticity in the cortical visual motion processing network. iScience 2023; 26:107064. [PMID: 37408682 PMCID: PMC10319215 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2022] [Revised: 02/14/2023] [Accepted: 06/02/2023] [Indexed: 07/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Cortico-cortical paired associative stimulation (ccPAS), which repeatedly pairs single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over two distant brain regions, is thought to modulate synaptic plasticity. We explored its spatial selectivity (pathway and direction specificity) and its nature (oscillatory signature and perceptual consequences) when applied along the ascending (Forward) and descending (Backward) motion discrimination pathway. We found unspecific connectivity increases in bottom-up inputs in the low gamma band, probably reflecting visual task exposure. A clear distinction in information transfer occurred in the re-entrant alpha signals, which were only modulated by Backward-ccPAS, and predictive of visual improvements in healthy participants. These results suggest a causal involvement of the re-entrant MT-to-V1 low-frequency inputs in motion discrimination and integration in healthy participants. Modulating re-entrant input activity could provide single-subject prediction scenarios for visual recovery. Visual recovery might indeed partly rely on these residual inputs projecting to spared V1 neurons.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michele Bevilacqua
- Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Neuro-X Institute (NRX) and Brain Mind Institute, EPFL, Geneva, Switzerland
- Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Neuro-X Institute (NRX) and Brain Mind Institute, Clinique Romande de Readaptation (CRR), EPFL Valais, Sion, Switzerland
| | - Krystel R. Huxlin
- The Flaum Eye Institute and Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
| | - Friedhelm C. Hummel
- Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Neuro-X Institute (NRX) and Brain Mind Institute, EPFL, Geneva, Switzerland
- Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Neuro-X Institute (NRX) and Brain Mind Institute, Clinique Romande de Readaptation (CRR), EPFL Valais, Sion, Switzerland
- Clinical Neuroscience, University of Geneva Medical School, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Estelle Raffin
- Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Neuro-X Institute (NRX) and Brain Mind Institute, EPFL, Geneva, Switzerland
- Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Neuro-X Institute (NRX) and Brain Mind Institute, Clinique Romande de Readaptation (CRR), EPFL Valais, Sion, Switzerland
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4
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Latimer KW, Freedman DJ. Low-dimensional encoding of decisions in parietal cortex reflects long-term training history. Nat Commun 2023; 14:1010. [PMID: 36823109 PMCID: PMC9950136 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-36554-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2021] [Accepted: 02/07/2023] [Indexed: 02/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Neurons in parietal cortex exhibit task-related activity during decision-making tasks. However, it remains unclear how long-term training to perform different tasks over months or even years shapes neural computations and representations. We examine lateral intraparietal area (LIP) responses during a visual motion delayed-match-to-category task. We consider two pairs of male macaque monkeys with different training histories: one trained only on the categorization task, and another first trained to perform fine motion-direction discrimination (i.e., pretrained). We introduce a novel analytical approach-generalized multilinear models-to quantify low-dimensional, task-relevant components in population activity. During the categorization task, we found stronger cosine-like motion-direction tuning in the pretrained monkeys than in the category-only monkeys, and that the pretrained monkeys' performance depended more heavily on fine discrimination between sample and test stimuli. These results suggest that sensory representations in LIP depend on the sequence of tasks that the animals have learned, underscoring the importance of considering training history in studies with complex behavioral tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kenneth W Latimer
- Department of Neurobiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
| | - David J Freedman
- Department of Neurobiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
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5
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Moon J, Kwon O. Attractive and repulsive effects of sensory history concurrently shape visual perception. BMC Biol 2022; 20:247. [DOI: 10.1186/s12915-022-01444-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2022] [Accepted: 10/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Background
Sequential effects of environmental stimuli are ubiquitous in most behavioral tasks involving magnitude estimation, memory, decision making, and emotion. The human visual system exploits continuity in the visual environment, which induces two contrasting perceptual phenomena shaping visual perception. Previous work reported that perceptual estimation of a stimulus may be influenced either by attractive serial dependencies or repulsive aftereffects, with a number of experimental variables suggested as factors determining the direction and magnitude of sequential effects. Recent studies have theorized that these two effects concurrently arise in perceptual processing, but empirical evidence that directly supports this hypothesis is lacking, and it remains unclear whether and how attractive and repulsive sequential effects interact in a trial. Here we show that the two effects concurrently modulate estimation behavior in a typical sequence of perceptual tasks.
Results
We first demonstrate that observers’ estimation error as a function of both the previous stimulus and response cannot be fully described by either attractive or repulsive bias but is instead well captured by a summation of repulsion from the previous stimulus and attraction toward the previous response. We then reveal that the repulsive bias is centered on the observer’s sensory encoding of the previous stimulus, which is again repelled away from its own preceding trial, whereas the attractive bias is centered precisely on the previous response, which is the observer’s best prediction about the incoming stimuli.
Conclusions
Our findings provide strong evidence that sensory encoding is shaped by dynamic tuning of the system to the past stimuli, inducing repulsive aftereffects, and followed by inference incorporating the prediction from the past estimation, leading to attractive serial dependence.
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6
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Choi JC, Park HJ, Park JA, Kang DR, Choi YS, Choi S, Lee HG, Choi JH, Choi IH, Yoon MW, Lee JM, Kim J. The increased analgesic efficacy of cold therapy after an unsuccessful analgesic experience is associated with inferior parietal lobule activation. Sci Rep 2022; 12:14687. [PMID: 36038625 PMCID: PMC9424269 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-18181-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2021] [Accepted: 08/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Prior experiences of successful and failed treatments are known to influence the efficacy of a newly applied treatment. However, whether that carry-over effect applies to non-pharmacological treatments is unknown. This study investigated how a failed treatment history with placebo analgesic cream affected the therapeutic outcomes of cold-pack treatment. The neural correlates underlying those effects were also explored using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The effect of the placebo analgesic cream was induced using placebo conditioning with small (44.5 °C to 43.7 °C, negative experience) and large (44.5 °C to 40.0 °C, positive experience) thermal stimuli changes. After the placebo conditioning, brain responses and self-reported evaluations of the effect of subsequent treatment with a cold-pack were contrasted between the two groups. The negative experience group reported less pain and lower anxiety scores in the cold-pack condition than the positive experience group and exhibited significantly greater activation in the right inferior parietal lobule (IPL), which is known to be involved in pain relief. These findings suggest that an unsatisfying experience with an initial pain-relief treatment could increase the expectations for the complementary treatment outcome and improve the analgesic effect of the subsequent treatment. The IPL could be associated with this expectation-induced pain relief process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jae Chan Choi
- Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju, 26426, Republic of Korea.,Cham Brain Health Institute, 08807, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Hae-Jeong Park
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, Graduate School of Medical Science, BrainKorea21Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 3722, Republic of Korea
| | - Jeong A Park
- Alzza Health Institute, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Dae Ryong Kang
- Department of Precision Medicine & Biostatistics, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju-si, 26426, Republic of Korea
| | - Young-Seok Choi
- Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering, Kwangwoon University, Seoul, 01897, Republic of Korea
| | - SoHyun Choi
- Department of Precision Medicine & Biostatistics, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju-si, 26426, Republic of Korea
| | - Hong Gyu Lee
- Department of Radiology, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju-si, 26426, Republic of Korea
| | - Jun-Ho Choi
- Department of Practical Arts Education, Chinju National University of Education, Jinju-si, 52673, Republic of Korea
| | - In-Ho Choi
- Department of Architectural Design, Kaywon University of Art and Design, Uiwang-si, 16038, Republic of Korea
| | - Min Woo Yoon
- Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju, 26426, Republic of Korea
| | - Jong-Min Lee
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, 4763, Republic of Korea
| | - Jinhee Kim
- School of Psychology, Korea University, Seoul, 2841, Republic of Korea.
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7
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Seideman JA, Stanford TR, Salinas E. A conflict between spatial selection and evidence accumulation in area LIP. Nat Commun 2022; 13:4463. [PMID: 35915096 PMCID: PMC9343639 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32209-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2022] [Accepted: 07/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
The lateral intraparietal area (LIP) contains spatially selective neurons that help guide eye movements and, according to numerous studies, do so by accumulating sensory evidence in favor of one choice (e.g., look left) or another (look right). To examine this functional link, we trained two monkeys on an urgent motion discrimination task, a task with which the evolution of both the recorded neuronal activity and the subject's choice can be tracked millisecond by millisecond. We found that while choice accuracy increased steeply with increasing sensory evidence, at the same time, the LIP selection signal became progressively weaker, as if it hindered performance. This effect was consistent with the transient deployment of spatial attention to disparate locations away from the relevant sensory cue. The results demonstrate that spatial selection in LIP is dissociable from, and may even conflict with, evidence accumulation during informed saccadic choices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua A Seideman
- Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, 1 Medical Center Blvd., Winston-Salem, NC, 27157-1010, USA
| | - Terrence R Stanford
- Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, 1 Medical Center Blvd., Winston-Salem, NC, 27157-1010, USA
| | - Emilio Salinas
- Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, 1 Medical Center Blvd., Winston-Salem, NC, 27157-1010, USA.
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8
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Abstract
For over 100 years, eye movements have been studied and used as indicators of human sensory and cognitive functions. This review evaluates how eye movements contribute to our understanding of the processes that underlie decision-making. Eye movement metrics signify the visual and task contexts in which information is accumulated and weighed. They indicate the efficiency with which we evaluate the instructions for decision tasks, the timing and duration of decision formation, the expected reward associated with a decision, the accuracy of the decision outcome, and our ability to predict and feel confident about a decision. Because of their continuous nature, eye movements provide an exciting opportunity to probe decision processes noninvasively in real time. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Vision Science, Volume 8 is September 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miriam Spering
- Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences and the Djavad Mowafaghian Center for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada;
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9
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Park SH, Koyano KW, Russ BE, Waidmann EN, McMahon DBT, Leopold DA. Parallel functional subnetworks embedded in the macaque face patch system. Sci Adv 2022; 8:eabm2054. [PMID: 35263138 PMCID: PMC8906740 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm2054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2021] [Accepted: 01/19/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
During normal vision, our eyes provide the brain with a continuous stream of useful information about the world. How visually specialized areas of the cortex, such as face-selective patches, operate under natural modes of behavior is poorly understood. Here we report that, during the free viewing of movies, cohorts of face-selective neurons in the macaque cortex fractionate into distributed and parallel subnetworks that carry distinct information. We classified neurons into functional groups on the basis of their movie-driven coupling with functional magnetic resonance imaging time courses across the brain. Neurons from each group were distributed across multiple face patches but intermixed locally with other groups at each recording site. These findings challenge prevailing views about functional segregation in the cortex and underscore the importance of naturalistic paradigms for cognitive neuroscience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Soo Hyun Park
- Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Kenji W. Koyano
- Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Brian E. Russ
- Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Elena N. Waidmann
- Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - David B. T. McMahon
- Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - David A. Leopold
- Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
- Neurophysiology Imaging Facility, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Eye Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
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10
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Lisi M, Morgan MJ, Solomon JA. Perceptual decisions and oculomotor responses rely on temporally distinct streams of evidence. Commun Biol 2022; 5:189. [PMID: 35233079 PMCID: PMC8888581 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03141-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2020] [Accepted: 02/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Perceptual decisions often require the integration of noisy sensory evidence over time. This process is formalized with sequential sampling models, where evidence is accumulated up to a decision threshold before a choice is made. Although intuition suggests that decision formation must precede the preparation of a motor response (i.e., the action used to communicate the choice), neurophysiological findings have suggested that these two processes might be one and the same. To test this idea, we developed a reverse-correlation protocol in which the visual stimuli that influence decisions can be distinguished from those guiding motor responses. In three experiments, we found that the temporal weighting function of oculomotor responses did not overlap with the relatively early weighting function of stimulus properties having an impact on decision formation. These results support a timeline in which perceptual decisions are formed, at least in part, prior to the preparation of a motor response. A paradigm in which visual stimuli that influence decisions can be distinguished from those guiding motor responses demonstrates that in humans, perceptual decisions are formed, at least in part, prior to the preparation of a motor response.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matteo Lisi
- Centre for Applied Vision Research, City, University of London, London, UK. .,Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Colchester, UK. .,Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK.
| | - Michael J Morgan
- Centre for Applied Vision Research, City, University of London, London, UK
| | - Joshua A Solomon
- Centre for Applied Vision Research, City, University of London, London, UK.
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11
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Raffin E, Witon A, Salamanca-Giron RF, Huxlin KR, Hummel FC. Functional Segregation within the Dorsal Frontoparietal Network: A Multimodal Dynamic Causal Modeling Study. Cereb Cortex 2021; 32:3187-3205. [PMID: 34864941 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab409] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2021] [Revised: 10/12/2021] [Accepted: 10/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Discrimination and integration of motion direction requires the interplay of multiple brain areas. Theoretical accounts of perception suggest that stimulus-related (i.e., exogenous) and decision-related (i.e., endogenous) factors affect distributed neuronal processing at different levels of the visual hierarchy. To test these predictions, we measured brain activity of healthy participants during a motion discrimination task, using electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We independently modeled the impact of exogenous factors (task demand) and endogenous factors (perceptual decision-making) on the activity of the motion discrimination network and applied Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM) to both modalities. DCM for event-related potentials (DCM-ERP) revealed that task demand impacted the reciprocal connections between the primary visual cortex (V1) and medial temporal areas (V5). With practice, higher visual areas were increasingly involved, as revealed by DCM-fMRI. Perceptual decision-making modulated higher levels (e.g., V5-to-Frontal Eye Fields, FEF), in a manner predictive of performance. Our data suggest that lower levels of the visual network support early, feature-based selection of responses, especially when learning strategies have not been implemented. In contrast, perceptual decision-making operates at higher levels of the visual hierarchy by integrating sensory information with the internal state of the subject.
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Affiliation(s)
- Estelle Raffin
- Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, EPFL, Geneva CH-1201, Switzerland.,Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Clinique Romande de Readaptation (CRR), EPFL Valais, Sion CH-1950, Switzerland
| | - Adrien Witon
- Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, EPFL, Geneva CH-1201, Switzerland.,Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Clinique Romande de Readaptation (CRR), EPFL Valais, Sion CH-1950, Switzerland.,Health IT, IT Department, Hôpital du Valais, Sion, Switzerland
| | - Roberto F Salamanca-Giron
- Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, EPFL, Geneva CH-1201, Switzerland.,Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Clinique Romande de Readaptation (CRR), EPFL Valais, Sion CH-1950, Switzerland
| | - Krystel R Huxlin
- The Flaum Eye Institute and Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY-14642, USA
| | - Friedhelm C Hummel
- Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, EPFL, Geneva CH-1201, Switzerland.,Defitech Chair in Clinical Neuroengineering, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Clinique Romande de Readaptation (CRR), EPFL Valais, Sion CH-1950, Switzerland.,Clinical Neuroscience, University of Geneva Medical School, Geneva CH-1205, Switzerland
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12
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Abstract
Navigating by path integration requires continuously estimating one's self-motion. This estimate may be derived from visual velocity and/or vestibular acceleration signals. Importantly, these senses in isolation are ill-equipped to provide accurate estimates, and thus visuo-vestibular integration is an imperative. After a summary of the visual and vestibular pathways involved, the crux of this review focuses on the human and theoretical approaches that have outlined a normative account of cue combination in behavior and neurons, as well as on the systems neuroscience efforts that are searching for its neural implementation. We then highlight a contemporary frontier in our state of knowledge: understanding how velocity cues with time-varying reliabilities are integrated into an evolving position estimate over prolonged time periods. Further, we discuss how the brain builds internal models inferring when cues ought to be integrated versus segregated-a process of causal inference. Lastly, we suggest that the study of spatial navigation has not yet addressed its initial condition: self-location. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 73 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean-Paul Noel
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA;
| | - Dora E Angelaki
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA; .,Tandon School of Engineering, New York University, New York, NY 11201, USA
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13
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Wildenberg GA, Rosen MR, Lundell J, Paukner D, Freedman DJ, Kasthuri N. Primate neuronal connections are sparse in cortex as compared to mouse. Cell Rep 2021; 36:109709. [PMID: 34525373 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109709] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2021] [Revised: 07/30/2021] [Accepted: 08/20/2021] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Detailing how primate and mouse neurons differ is critical for creating generalized models of how neurons process information. We reconstruct 15,748 synapses in adult Rhesus macaques and mice and ask how connectivity differs on identified cell types in layer 2/3 of primary visual cortex. Primate excitatory and inhibitory neurons receive 2-5 times fewer excitatory and inhibitory synapses than similar mouse neurons. Primate excitatory neurons have lower excitatory-to-inhibitory (E/I) ratios than mouse but similar E/I ratios in inhibitory neurons. In both species, properties of inhibitory axons such as synapse size and frequency are unchanged, and inhibitory innervation of excitatory neurons is local and specific. Using artificial recurrent neural networks (RNNs) optimized for different cognitive tasks, we find that penalizing networks for creating and maintaining synapses, as opposed to neuronal firing, reduces the number of connections per node as the number of nodes increases, similar to primate neurons compared with mice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gregg A Wildenberg
- Department of Neurobiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA; Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL 60439, USA.
| | - Matt R Rosen
- Department of Neurobiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Jack Lundell
- Department of Neurobiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Dawn Paukner
- Department of Neurobiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - David J Freedman
- Department of Neurobiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Narayanan Kasthuri
- Department of Neurobiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA; Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL 60439, USA.
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14
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Abstract
The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) has long been understood as a high-level integrative station for computing motor commands for the body based on sensory (i.e., mostly tactile and visual) input from the outside world. In the last decade, accumulating evidence has shown that the parietal areas not only extract the pragmatic features of manipulable objects, but also subserve sensorimotor processing of others’ actions. A paradigmatic case is that of the anterior intraparietal area (AIP), which encodes the identity of observed manipulative actions that afford potential motor actions the observer could perform in response to them. On these bases, we propose an AIP manipulative action-based template of the general planning functions of the PPC and review existing evidence supporting the extension of this model to other PPC regions and to a wider set of actions: defensive and locomotor actions. In our model, a hallmark of PPC functioning is the processing of information about the physical and social world to encode potential bodily actions appropriate for the current context. We further extend the model to actions performed with man-made objects (e.g., tools) and artifacts, because they become integral parts of the subject’s body schema and motor repertoire. Finally, we conclude that existing evidence supports a generally conserved neural circuitry that transforms integrated sensory signals into the variety of bodily actions that primates are capable of preparing and performing to interact with their physical and social world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guy A Orban
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, via Volturno 39/E, 43125, Parma, Italy.
| | - Alessia Sepe
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, via Volturno 39/E, 43125, Parma, Italy
| | - Luca Bonini
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, via Volturno 39/E, 43125, Parma, Italy.
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15
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Zhou Y, Rosen MC, Swaminathan SK, Masse NY, Zhu O, Freedman DJ. Distributed functions of prefrontal and parietal cortices during sequential categorical decisions. eLife 2021; 10:e58782. [PMID: 34491201 PMCID: PMC8423442 DOI: 10.7554/elife.58782] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2020] [Accepted: 07/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Comparing sequential stimuli is crucial for guiding complex behaviors. To understand mechanisms underlying sequential decisions, we compared neuronal responses in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the lateral intraparietal (LIP), and medial intraparietal (MIP) areas in monkeys trained to decide whether sequentially presented stimuli were from matching (M) or nonmatching (NM) categories. We found that PFC leads M/NM decisions, whereas LIP and MIP appear more involved in stimulus evaluation and motor planning, respectively. Compared to LIP, PFC showed greater nonlinear integration of currently visible and remembered stimuli, which correlated with the monkeys' M/NM decisions. Furthermore, multi-module recurrent networks trained on the same task exhibited key features of PFC and LIP encoding, including nonlinear integration in the PFC-like module, which was causally involved in the networks' decisions. Network analysis found that nonlinear units have stronger and more widespread connections with input, output, and within-area units, indicating putative circuit-level mechanisms for sequential decisions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yang Zhou
- Department of Neurobiology, The University of ChicagoChicagoUnited States
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking UniversityBeijingChina
| | - Matthew C Rosen
- Department of Neurobiology, The University of ChicagoChicagoUnited States
| | | | - Nicolas Y Masse
- Department of Neurobiology, The University of ChicagoChicagoUnited States
| | - Ou Zhu
- Department of Neurobiology, The University of ChicagoChicagoUnited States
| | - David J Freedman
- Department of Neurobiology, The University of ChicagoChicagoUnited States
- Neuroscience Institute, The University of ChicagoChicagoUnited States
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16
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17
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Abstract
Psychophysical and neurophysiological studies of responses to visual motion have converged on a consistent set of general principles that characterize visual processing of motion information. Both types of approaches have shown that the direction and speed of target motion are among the most important encoded stimulus properties, revealing many parallels between psychophysical and physiological responses to motion. Motivated by these parallels, this review focuses largely on more direct links between the key feature of the neuronal response to motion, direction selectivity, and its utilization in memory-guided perceptual decisions. These links were established during neuronal recordings in monkeys performing direction discriminations, but also by examining perceptual effects of widespread elimination of cortical direction selectivity produced by motion deprivation during development. Other approaches, such as microstimulation and lesions, have documented the importance of direction-selective activity in the areas that are active during memory-guided direction comparisons, area MT and the prefrontal cortex, revealing their likely interactions during behavioral tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tatiana Pasternak
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642, USA; , .,Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.,Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.,Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642, USA
| | - Duje Tadin
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642, USA; , .,Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.,Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.,Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642, USA.,Department of Ophthalmology, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642, USA
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18
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Abstract
Measuring when exactly perceptual decisions are made is crucial for defining how the activation of specific neurons contributes to behavior. However, in traditional, nonurgent visuomotor tasks, the uncertainty of this temporal measurement is very large. This is a problem not only for delimiting the capacity of perception, but also for correctly interpreting the functional roles ascribed to choice-related neuronal responses. In this article, we review psychophysical, neurophysiological, and modeling work based on urgent visuomotor tasks in which this temporal uncertainty can be effectively overcome. The cornerstone of this work is a novel behavioral metric that describes the evolution of the subject's perceptual judgment moment by moment, allowing us to resolve numerous perceptual events that unfold within a few tens of milliseconds. In this framework, the neural distinction between perceptual evaluation and motor selection processes becomes particularly clear, as the conclusion of one is not contingent on that of the other. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Vision Science, Volume 7 is September 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Terrence R Stanford
- Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157, USA; ,
| | - Emilio Salinas
- Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157, USA; ,
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19
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Wu YH, Velenosi LA, Blankenburg F. Response modality-dependent categorical choice representations for vibrotactile comparisons. Neuroimage 2020; 226:117592. [PMID: 33248258 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117592] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2019] [Revised: 11/15/2020] [Accepted: 11/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous electrophysiological studies in monkeys and humans suggest that premotor regions are the primary loci for the encoding of perceptual choices during vibrotactile comparisons. However, these studies employed paradigms wherein choices were inextricably linked with the stimulus order and selection of manual movements. It remains largely unknown how vibrotactile choices are represented when they are decoupled from these sensorimotor components of the task. To address this question, we used fMRI-MVPA and a variant of the vibrotactile frequency discrimination task which enabled the isolation of choice-related signals from those related to stimulus order and selection of the manual decision reports. We identified the left contralateral dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) and intraparietal sulcus (IPS) as carrying information about vibrotactile choices. Our finding provides empirical evidence for an involvement of the PMd and IPS in vibrotactile decisions that goes above and beyond the coding of stimulus order and specific action selection. Considering findings from recent studies in animals, we speculate that the premotor region likely serves as a temporary storage site for information necessary for the specification of concrete manual movements, while the IPS might be more directly involved in the computation of choice. Moreover, this finding replicates results from our previous work using an oculomotor variant of the task, with the important difference that the informative premotor cluster identified in the previous work was centered in the bilateral frontal eye fields rather than in the PMd. Evidence from these two studies indicates that categorical choices in human vibrotactile comparisons are represented in a response modality-dependent manner.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuan-Hao Wu
- Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit (NNU), Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
| | - Lisa A Velenosi
- Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit (NNU), Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany
| | - Felix Blankenburg
- Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit (NNU), Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany
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20
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Cowley BR, Snyder AC, Acar K, Williamson RC, Yu BM, Smith MA. Slow Drift of Neural Activity as a Signature of Impulsivity in Macaque Visual and Prefrontal Cortex. Neuron 2020; 108:551-567.e8. [PMID: 32810433 PMCID: PMC7822647 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.07.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2020] [Revised: 06/15/2020] [Accepted: 07/17/2020] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
An animal's decision depends not only on incoming sensory evidence but also on its fluctuating internal state. This state embodies multiple cognitive factors, such as arousal and fatigue, but it is unclear how these factors influence the neural processes that encode sensory stimuli and form a decision. We discovered that, unprompted by task conditions, animals slowly shifted their likelihood of detecting stimulus changes over the timescale of tens of minutes. Neural population activity from visual area V4, as well as from prefrontal cortex, slowly drifted together with these behavioral fluctuations. We found that this slow drift, rather than altering the encoding of the sensory stimulus, acted as an impulsivity signal, overriding sensory evidence to dictate the final decision. Overall, this work uncovers an internal state embedded in population activity across multiple brain areas and sheds further light on how internal states contribute to the decision-making process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin R Cowley
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Machine Learning, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Adam C Snyder
- Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14642, USA; Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14642, USA; Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14642, USA
| | - Katerina Acar
- Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Center for Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Ryan C Williamson
- Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Machine Learning, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Byron M Yu
- Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Matthew A Smith
- Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
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21
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Spitmaan M, Seo H, Lee D, Soltani A. Multiple timescales of neural dynamics and integration of task-relevant signals across cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:22522-31. [PMID: 32839338 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2005993117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
A long-lasting challenge in neuroscience has been to find a set of principles that could be used to organize the brain into distinct areas with specific functions. Recent studies have proposed the orderly progression in the time constants of neural dynamics as an organizational principle of cortical computations. However, relationships between these timescales and their dependence on response properties of individual neurons are unknown, making it impossible to determine how mechanisms underlying such a computational principle are related to other aspects of neural processing. Here, we developed a comprehensive method to simultaneously estimate multiple timescales in neuronal dynamics and integration of task-relevant signals along with selectivity to those signals. By applying our method to neural and behavioral data during a dynamic decision-making task, we found that most neurons exhibited multiple timescales in their response, which consistently increased from parietal to prefrontal and cingulate cortex. While predicting rates of behavioral adjustments, these timescales were not correlated across individual neurons in any cortical area, resulting in independent parallel hierarchies of timescales. Additionally, none of these timescales depended on selectivity to task-relevant signals. Our results not only suggest the existence of multiple canonical mechanisms for increasing timescales of neural dynamics across cortex but also point to additional mechanisms that allow decorrelation of these timescales to enable more flexibility.
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22
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Abstract
In our natural environment the senses are continuously flooded with a myriad of signals. To form a coherent representation of the world, the brain needs to integrate sensory signals arising from a common cause and segregate signals coming from separate causes. An unresolved question is how the brain solves this binding or causal inference problem and determines the causal structure of the sensory signals. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study human observers (female and male) were presented with synchronous auditory and visual signals at the same location (i.e., common cause) or different locations (i.e., separate causes). On each trial, observers decided whether signals come from common or separate sources(i.e., "causal decisions"). To dissociate participants' causal inference from the spatial correspondence cues we adjusted the audiovisual disparity of the signals individually for each participant to threshold accuracy. Multivariate fMRI pattern analysis revealed the lateral prefrontal cortex as the only region that encodes predominantly the outcome of observers' causal inference (i.e., common vs separate causes). By contrast, the frontal eye field (FEF) and the intraparietal sulcus (IPS0-4) form a circuitry that concurrently encodes spatial (auditory and visual stimulus locations), decisional (causal inference), and motor response dimensions. These results suggest that the lateral prefrontal cortex plays a key role in inferring and making explicit decisions about the causal structure that generates sensory signals in our environment. By contrast, informed by observers' inferred causal structure, the FEF-IPS circuitry integrates auditory and visual spatial signals into representations that guide motor responses.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT In our natural environment, our senses are continuously flooded with a myriad of signals. Transforming this barrage of sensory signals into a coherent percept of the world relies inherently on solving the causal inference problem, deciding whether sensory signals arise from a common cause and should hence be integrated or else be segregated. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study shows that the lateral prefrontal cortex plays a key role in inferring the causal structure of the environment. Crucially, informed by the spatial correspondence cues and the inferred causal structure the frontal eye field and the intraparietal sulcus form a circuitry that integrates auditory and visual spatial signals into representations that guide motor responses.
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23
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Schonberg T, Katz LN. A Neural Pathway for Nonreinforced Preference Change. Trends Cogn Sci 2020; 24:504-514. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2020.04.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2020] [Revised: 04/16/2020] [Accepted: 04/16/2020] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
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24
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Ertl M, Klaus M, Mast FW, Brandt T, Dieterich M. Spectral fingerprints of correct vestibular discrimination of the intensity of body accelerations. Neuroimage 2020; 219:117015. [PMID: 32505699 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2019] [Revised: 05/04/2020] [Accepted: 06/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Perceptual decision-making is a complex task that requires multiple processing steps performed by spatially distinct brain regions interacting in order to optimize perception and motor response. Most of our knowledge on these processes and interactions were derived from unimodal stimulations of the visual system which identified the lateral intraparietal area and the posterior parietal cortex as critical regions. Unlike the visual system, the vestibular system has no primary cortical areas and it is associated with separate multisensory areas within the temporo-parietal cortex with the parieto-insular vestibular cortex, PIVC, being the core region. The aim of the presented experiment was to investigate the transition from sensation to perception and to reveal the main structures of the cortical vestibular system involved in perceptual decision-making. Therefore, an EEG analysis was performed in 35 healthy subjects during linear whole-body accelerations of different intensities on a motor-driven motion platform (hexapod). We used a discrimination task in order to judge the intensity of the accelerations. Furthermore, we manipulated the expectation of the upcoming stimulus by indicating the probability (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) of the motion direction. The analysis of the vestibular evoked potentials (VestEPs) showed that the decision-making process leads to a second positive peak (P2b) which was not observed in previous task-free experiments. The comparison of the estimated neural generators of the P2a and P2b components showed significant activity differences in the anterior cingulus, the parahippocampal and the middle temporal gyri. Taking into account the time courses of the P2 components, the physical properties of the stimuli, and the responses given by the subjects we conclude that the P2b likely reflects the transition from the processing of sensory information to perceptual evaluation. Analyzing the decision-uncertainty reported by the subjects, a persistent divergence of the time courses starting at 188 ms after the acceleration was found at electrode Pz. This finding demonstrated that meta-cognition by means of confidence estimation starts in parallel with the decision-making process itself. Further analyses in the time-frequency domain revealed that a correct classification of acceleration intensities correlated with an inter-trial phase clustering at electrode Cz and an inter-site phase clustering of theta oscillations over frontal, central, and parietal cortical areas. The sites where the phase clustering was observed corresponded to core decision-making brain areas known from neuroimaging studies in the visual domain.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Ertl
- Department of Psychology, University Bern, Switzerland; Department of Neurology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany.
| | - M Klaus
- Department of Psychology, University Bern, Switzerland
| | - F W Mast
- Department of Psychology, University Bern, Switzerland
| | - T Brandt
- German Center for Vertigo and Balance Disorders-IFBLMU (DSGZ), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany; Hertie Senior Research Professor for Clinical Neuroscience, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany
| | - M Dieterich
- Department of Neurology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany; German Center for Vertigo and Balance Disorders-IFBLMU (DSGZ), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany; Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy), Munich, Germany
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25
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Keung W, Hagen TA, Wilson RC. A divisive model of evidence accumulation explains uneven weighting of evidence over time. Nat Commun 2020; 11:2160. [PMID: 32358501 PMCID: PMC7195479 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15630-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2019] [Accepted: 03/12/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Divisive normalization has long been used to account for computations in various neural processes and behaviours. The model proposes that inputs into a neural system are divisively normalized by the system’s total activity. More recently, dynamical versions of divisive normalization have been shown to account for how neural activity evolves over time in value-based decision making. Despite its ubiquity, divisive normalization has not been studied in decisions that require evidence to be integrated over time. Such decisions are important when the information is not all available at once. A key feature of such decisions is how evidence is weighted over time, known as the integration kernel. Here, we provide a formal expression for the integration kernel in divisive normalization, and show that divisive normalization quantitatively accounts for 133 human participants’ perceptual decision making behaviour, performing as well as the state-of-the-art Drift Diffusion Model, the predominant model for perceptual evidence accumulation. Divisive normalization is thought to be a ubiquitous computation in the brain, but has not been studied in decisions that require integrating evidence over time. Here, the authors show in humans that dynamic divisive normalization accounts for the uneven weighting of perceptual evidence over time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Waitsang Keung
- Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85719, USA.
| | - Todd A Hagen
- Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85719, USA
| | - Robert C Wilson
- Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85719, USA.,Cognitive Science Program, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85719, USA
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26
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Zhou Y, Freedman DJ. Posterior parietal cortex plays a causal role in perceptual and categorical decisions. Science 2020; 365:180-185. [PMID: 31296771 DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw8347] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2019] [Accepted: 06/18/2019] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
Posterior parietal cortex (PPC) activity correlates with monkeys' decisions during visual discrimination and categorization tasks. However, recent work has questioned whether decision-correlated PPC activity plays a causal role in such decisions. That study focused on PPC's contribution to motor aspects of decisions (deciding where to move), but not sensory evaluation aspects (deciding what you are looking at). We employed reversible inactivation to compare PPC's contributions to motor and sensory aspects of decisions. Inactivation affected both aspects of behavior, but preferentially impaired decisions when visual stimuli, rather than motor response targets, were in the inactivated visual field. This demonstrates a causal role for PPC in decision-making, with preferential involvement in evaluating attended task-relevant sensory stimuli compared with motor planning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yang Zhou
- Department of Neurobiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
| | - David J Freedman
- Department of Neurobiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
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27
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Thura D, Cisek P. Microstimulation of dorsal premotor and primary motor cortex delays the volitional commitment to an action choice. J Neurophysiol 2020; 123:927-935. [PMID: 31995433 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00682.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Humans and other animals are faced with decisions about actions on a daily basis. These typically include a period of deliberation that ends with the commitment to a choice, which then leads to the overt expression of that choice through action. Previous studies with monkeys have demonstrated that neural activity in sensorimotor areas correlates with the deliberation process and reflects the moment of commitment before movement initiation, but the causal roles of these regions are challenging to establish. Here, we tested whether dorsal premotor (PMd) and primary motor cortex (M1) are causally involved in the volitional commitment to a reaching choice. We found that brief subthreshold microstimulation in PMd or M1 delayed commitment to an action but not the initiation of the action itself. Importantly, microstimulation only had a significant effect when it was delivered close to and before commitment time. These results are consistent with the proposal that PMd and M1 participate in the commitment process, which occurs when a critical firing rate difference is reached between cells voting for the selected option and those voting for the competing one.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The neural substrates of decisions between actions are typically investigated by correlating neural activity and subjects' decision behavior, but this does not establish causality. In a reaching decision task, we demonstrate that subthreshold microstimulation of the monkey dorsal premotor cortex or primary motor cortex delays the deliberation duration if applied shortly before choice commitment. This result suggests a causal role of the sensorimotor cortex in the determination of decisions between actions.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Thura
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Paul Cisek
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
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28
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Munuera J, Duhamel JR. The role of the posterior parietal cortex in saccadic error processing. Brain Struct Funct 2020; 225:763-84. [PMID: 32065255 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-020-02034-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2019] [Accepted: 01/27/2020] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Ocular saccades rapidly displace the fovea from one point of interest to another, thus minimizing the loss of visual information and ensuring the seamless continuity of visual perception. However, because of intrinsic variability in sensory-motor processing, saccades often miss their intended target, necessitating a secondary corrective saccade. Behavioral evidence suggests that the oculomotor system estimates saccadic error by relying on two sources of information: the retinal feedback obtained post-saccadically and an internal extra-retinal signal obtained from efference copy or proprioception. However, the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying this process remain elusive. We trained two rhesus monkeys to perform visually guided saccades towards a target that was imperceptibly displaced at saccade onset on some trials. We recorded activity from neurons in the lateral intraparietal area (LIP), an area implicated in visual, attentional and saccadic processing. We found that a subpopulation of neurons detect saccadic motor error by firing more strongly after an inaccurate saccade. This signal did not depend on retinal feedback or on the execution of a secondary corrective saccade. Moreover, inactivating LIP led to a large and selective increase in the latency of small (i.e., natural) corrective saccade initiation. Our results indicate a key role for LIP in saccadic error processing.
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29
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Bahl A, Engert F. Neural circuits for evidence accumulation and decision making in larval zebrafish. Nat Neurosci 2020; 23:94-102. [PMID: 31792464 DOI: 10.1038/s41593-019-0534-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2019] [Accepted: 10/07/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
To make appropriate decisions, animals need to accumulate sensory evidence. Simple integrator models can explain many aspects of such behavior, but how the underlying computations are mechanistically implemented in the brain remains poorly understood. Here we approach this problem by adapting the random-dot motion discrimination paradigm, classically used in primate studies, to larval zebrafish. Using their innate optomotor response as a measure of decision making, we find that larval zebrafish accumulate and remember motion evidence over many seconds and that the behavior is in close agreement with a bounded leaky integrator model. Through the use of brain-wide functional imaging, we identify three neuronal clusters in the anterior hindbrain that are well suited to execute the underlying computations. By relating the dynamics within these structures to individual behavioral choices, we propose a biophysically plausible circuit arrangement in which an evidence integrator competes against a dynamic decision threshold to activate a downstream motor command.
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Hou H, Zheng Q, Zhao Y, Pouget A, Gu Y. Neural Correlates of Optimal Multisensory Decision Making under Time-Varying Reliabilities with an Invariant Linear Probabilistic Population Code. Neuron 2019; 104:1010-1021.e10. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.08.038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2019] [Revised: 07/21/2019] [Accepted: 08/22/2019] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
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31
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Waskom ML, Okazawa G, Kiani R. Designing and Interpreting Psychophysical Investigations of Cognition. Neuron 2019; 104:100-112. [PMID: 31600507 PMCID: PMC6855836 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.09.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2019] [Revised: 09/03/2019] [Accepted: 09/12/2019] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Scientific experimentation depends on the artificial control of natural phenomena. The inaccessibility of cognitive processes to direct manipulation can make such control difficult to realize. Here, we discuss approaches for overcoming this challenge. We advocate the incorporation of experimental techniques from sensory psychophysics into the study of cognitive processes such as decision making and executive control. These techniques include the use of simple parameterized stimuli to precisely manipulate available information and computational models to jointly quantify behavior and neural responses. We illustrate the potential for such techniques to drive theoretical development, and we examine important practical details of how to conduct controlled experiments when using them. Finally, we highlight principles guiding the use of computational models in studying the neural basis of cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael L Waskom
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, 4 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | - Gouki Okazawa
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, 4 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | - Roozbeh Kiani
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, 4 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA; Neuroscience Institute, NYU Langone Medical Center, 550 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA; Department of Psychology, New York University, 4 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA.
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32
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Mestdagh M, Verdonck S, Meers K, Loossens T, Tuerlinckx F. Prepaid parameter estimation without likelihoods. PLoS Comput Biol 2019; 15:e1007181. [PMID: 31498789 PMCID: PMC6752867 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007181] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2019] [Revised: 09/19/2019] [Accepted: 06/14/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
In various fields, statistical models of interest are analytically intractable and inference is usually performed using a simulation-based method. However elegant these methods are, they are often painstakingly slow and convergence is difficult to assess. As a result, statistical inference is greatly hampered by computational constraints. However, for a given statistical model, different users, even with different data, are likely to perform similar computations. Computations done by one user are potentially useful for other users with different data sets. We propose a pooling of resources across researchers to capitalize on this. More specifically, we preemptively chart out the entire space of possible model outcomes in a prepaid database. Using advanced interpolation techniques, any individual estimation problem can now be solved on the spot. The prepaid method can easily accommodate different priors as well as constraints on the parameters. We created prepaid databases for three challenging models and demonstrate how they can be distributed through an online parameter estimation service. Our method outperforms state-of-the-art estimation techniques in both speed (with a 23,000 to 100,000-fold speed up) and accuracy, and is able to handle previously quasi inestimable models. Interesting nonlinear models are often analytically intractable. As a result, statistical inference has to rely on massive, time-intensive, simulations. The main idea of our method is to avoid the redundancy of similar computations that typically occur when different researchers independently fit the same model to their particular dataset. Instead, we propose to pool computational resources across the researchers interested in any given model. The prepaid method starts with an extensive simulation of datasets across the parameter space. The simulated data are compressed into summary statistics, and the relation to the parameters is learned using machine learning techniques. This results in a parameter estimation machine that produces accurate estimates very quickly (a 23,000 to 100,000-fold speed up compared to traditional methods).
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Tim Loossens
- KU Leuven, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
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Blohm G, Alikhanian H, Gaetz W, Goltz H, DeSouza J, Cheyne D, Crawford J. Neuromagnetic signatures of the spatiotemporal transformation for manual pointing. Neuroimage 2019; 197:306-319. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.04.074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2018] [Revised: 03/28/2019] [Accepted: 04/27/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
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34
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Hu X, Zhang L, Bu X, Li H, Li B, Tang W, Lu L, Hu X, Tang S, Gao Y, Yang Y, Roberts N, Gong Q, Huang X. Localized Connectivity in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: An Investigation Combining Univariate and Multivariate Pattern Analyses. Front Behav Neurosci 2019; 13:122. [PMID: 31249515 PMCID: PMC6584748 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2018] [Accepted: 05/20/2019] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent developments in psychoradiological researches have highlighted the disrupted organization of large-scale functional brain networks in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, whether abnormal activation of localized brain areas would affect network dysfunction remains to be fully characterized. We applied both univariate analysis and multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) approaches to investigate the abnormalities of regional homogeneity (ReHo), an index to measure the localized connectivity, in 88 medication-free patients with OCD and 88 healthy control subjects (HCS). Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) data of all the participants were acquired in a 3.0-T scanner. First, we adopted a traditional univariate analysis to explore ReHo alterations between the patient group and the control group. Subsequently, we utilized a support vector machine (SVM) to examine whether ReHo could be further used to differentiate patients with OCD from HCS at the individual level. Relative to HCS, OCD patients showed lower ReHo in the bilateral cerebellum and higher ReHo in the bilateral superior frontal gyri (SFG), right inferior parietal gyrus (IPG), and precuneus [P < 0.05, family-wise error (FWE) correction]. ReHo value in the left SFG positively correlated with Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) total score (r = 0 0.241, P = 0.024) and obsessive subscale (r = 0.224, P = 0.036). The SVM classification regarding ReHo yielded an accuracy of 78.98% (sensitivity = 78.41%, specificity = 79.55%) with P < 0.001 after permutation testing. The most discriminative regions contributing to the SVM classification were mainly located in the frontal, temporal, and parietal regions as well as in the cerebellum while the right orbital frontal cortex was identified with the highest discriminative power. Our findings not only suggested that the localized activation disequilibrium between the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the cerebellum appeared to be associated with the pathophysiology of OCD but also indicated the translational role of the localized connectivity as a potential discriminative pattern to detect OCD at the individual level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xinyu Hu
- Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Lianqing Zhang
- Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Xuan Bu
- Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Hailong Li
- Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Bin Li
- Mental Health Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Wanjie Tang
- Mental Health Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Lu Lu
- Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Xiaoxiao Hu
- Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Shi Tang
- Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Yingxue Gao
- Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Yanchun Yang
- Mental Health Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Neil Roberts
- Clinical Research Imaging Centre (CRIC), The Queen's Medical Research Institute (QMRI), University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Qiyong Gong
- Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Xiaoqi Huang
- Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
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35
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Zoltowski DM, Latimer KW, Yates JL, Huk AC, Pillow JW. Discrete Stepping and Nonlinear Ramping Dynamics Underlie Spiking Responses of LIP Neurons during Decision-Making. Neuron 2019; 102:1249-1258.e10. [PMID: 31130330 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.04.031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2018] [Revised: 03/21/2019] [Accepted: 04/19/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Neurons in LIP exhibit ramping trial-averaged responses during decision-making. Recent work sparked debate over whether single-trial LIP spike trains are better described by discrete "stepping" or continuous "ramping" dynamics. We extended latent dynamical spike train models and used Bayesian model comparison to address this controversy. First, we incorporated non-Poisson spiking into both models and found that more neurons were better described by stepping than ramping, even when conditioned on evidence or choice. Second, we extended the ramping model to include a non-zero baseline and compressive output nonlinearity. This model accounted for roughly as many neurons as the stepping model. However, latent dynamics inferred under this model exhibited high diffusion variance for many neurons, softening the distinction between continuous and discrete dynamics. Results generalized to additional datasets, demonstrating that substantial fractions of neurons are well described by either stepping or nonlinear ramping, which may be less categorically distinct than the original labels implied.
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Affiliation(s)
- David M Zoltowski
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA.
| | - Kenneth W Latimer
- Department of Neurobiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Jacob L Yates
- Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA
| | - Alexander C Huk
- Department of Neuroscience, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA; Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA; Center for Perceptual Systems, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
| | - Jonathan W Pillow
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA; Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
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36
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Turner BM, Palestro JJ, Miletić S, Forstmann BU. Advances in techniques for imposing reciprocity in brain-behavior relations. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2019; 102:327-336. [PMID: 31128445 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.04.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2018] [Revised: 03/18/2019] [Accepted: 04/25/2019] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
To better understand human behavior, the emerging field of model-based cognitive neuroscience seeks to anchor psychological theory to the biological substrate from which behavior originates: the brain. Despite complex dynamics, many researchers in this field have demonstrated that fluctuations in brain activity can be related to fluctuations in components of cognitive models, which instantiate psychological theories. In this review, we discuss a number of approaches for relating brain activity to cognitive models, and expand on a framework for imposing reciprocity in the inference of mental operations from the combination of brain and behavioral data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brandon M Turner
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
| | - James J Palestro
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
| | - Steven Miletić
- Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
| | - Birte U Forstmann
- Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
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37
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von Lautz A, Herding J, Blankenburg F. Neuronal signatures of a random-dot motion comparison task. Neuroimage 2019; 193:57-66. [PMID: 30849531 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.02.071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2018] [Revised: 01/21/2019] [Accepted: 02/28/2019] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
The study of perceptual decision making has made significant progress owing to major contributions from two experimental paradigms: the sequential vibrotactile frequency comparison task for the somatosensory domain requiring working memory, and the random-dot motion task in the visual domain requiring evidence accumulation over time. On the one hand, electrophysiological recordings in nonhuman primates and humans have identified changes in firing rates and power modulations of beta band oscillations with the vibrotactile frequencies held in working memory, as well as with the mental operation required for decision making. On the other hand, firing rates and centro-parietal potentials were found to increase to a fixed level at the time of responding during the random-dot motion task, possibly reflecting an underlying evidence accumulation mechanism until a decision threshold is met. Here, to bridge these two paradigms, we presented two visual random-dot motion stimuli in a sequential comparison task while recording EEG from human volunteers. We identified a modulation of prefrontal beta band power that scaled with the level of dot motion coherence of the first stimulus during a short retention interval. Furthermore, beta power in premotor areas was modulated by participants' choices approximately 700 ms before responses were given via button press. At the same time, dot motion patches of the second stimulus evoked a pattern of broadband centro-parietal signal build-up till responses were made, whose peak varied with trial difficulty. Hence, we show that known modulations of beta power during working memory and decision making extend from the vibrotactile to the visual domain and provide support for the notion of evidence accumulation as an unconfined decision-making mechanism generalizing over distinct decision types.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander von Lautz
- Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit, Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195, Berlin, Germany; Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Philippstr. 13, 10115, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Jan Herding
- Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit, Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195, Berlin, Germany; Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Philippstr. 13, 10115, Berlin, Germany
| | - Felix Blankenburg
- Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit, Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195, Berlin, Germany; Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Philippstr. 13, 10115, Berlin, Germany
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38
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Wu YH, Velenosi LA, Schröder P, Ludwig S, Blankenburg F. Decoding vibrotactile choice independent of stimulus order and saccade selection during sequential comparisons. Hum Brain Mapp 2018; 40:1898-1907. [PMID: 30565343 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24499] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2018] [Revised: 12/05/2018] [Accepted: 12/10/2018] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Decision-making in the somatosensory domain has been intensively studied using vibrotactile frequency discrimination tasks. Results from human and monkey electrophysiological studies from this line of research suggest that perceptual choices are encoded within a sensorimotor network. These findings, however, rely on experimental settings in which perceptual choices are inextricably linked to sensory and motor components of the task. Here, we devised a novel version of the vibrotactile frequency discrimination task with saccade responses which has the crucial advantage of decoupling perceptual choices from sensory and motor processes. We recorded human fMRI data from 32 participants while they performed the task. Using a whole-brain searchlight multivariate classification technique, we identify the left lateral prefrontal cortex and the oculomotor system, including the bilateral frontal eye fields (FEF) and intraparietal sulci, as representing vibrotactile choices. Moreover, we show that the decoding accuracy of choice information in the right FEF correlates with behavioral performance. Not only are these findings in remarkable agreement with previous work, they also provide novel fMRI evidence for choice coding in human oculomotor regions, which is not limited to saccadic decisions, but pertains to contexts where choices are made in a more abstract form.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuan-Hao Wu
- Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Lisa A Velenosi
- Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Pia Schröder
- Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Simon Ludwig
- Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Felix Blankenburg
- Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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39
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Levi AJ, Yates JL, Huk AC, Katz LN. Strategic and Dynamic Temporal Weighting for Perceptual Decisions in Humans and Macaques. eNeuro 2018; 5:ENEURO. [PMID: 30406190 DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0169-18.2018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2018] [Revised: 08/08/2018] [Accepted: 09/01/2018] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Perceptual decision-making is often modeled as the accumulation of sensory evidence over time. Recent studies using psychophysical reverse correlation have shown that even though the sensory evidence is stationary over time, subjects may exhibit a time-varying weighting strategy, weighting some stimulus epochs more heavily than others. While previous work has explained time-varying weighting as a consequence of static decision mechanisms (e.g., decision bound or leak), here we show that time-varying weighting can reflect strategic adaptation to stimulus statistics, and thus can readily take a number of forms. We characterized the temporal weighting strategies of humans and macaques performing a motion discrimination task in which the amount of information carried by the motion stimulus was manipulated over time. Both species could adapt their temporal weighting strategy to match the time-varying statistics of the sensory stimulus. When early stimulus epochs had higher mean motion strength than late, subjects adopted a pronounced early weighting strategy, where early information was weighted more heavily in guiding perceptual decisions. When the mean motion strength was greater in later stimulus epochs, in contrast, subjects shifted to a marked late weighting strategy. These results demonstrate that perceptual decisions involve a temporally flexible weighting process in both humans and monkeys, and introduce a paradigm with which to manipulate sensory weighting in decision-making tasks.
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40
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Huk A, Bonnen K, He BJ. Beyond Trial-Based Paradigms: Continuous Behavior, Ongoing Neural Activity, and Natural Stimuli. J Neurosci 2018; 38:7551-7558. [PMID: 30037835 PMCID: PMC6113904 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1920-17.2018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2018] [Revised: 07/02/2018] [Accepted: 07/07/2018] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The vast majority of experiments examining perception and behavior are conducted using experimental paradigms that adhere to a rigid trial structure: each trial consists of a brief and discrete series of events and is regarded as independent from all other trials. The assumptions underlying this structure ignore the reality that natural behavior is rarely discrete, brain activity follows multiple time courses that do not necessarily conform to the trial structure, and the natural environment has statistical structure and dynamics that exhibit long-range temporal correlation. Modern advances in statistical modeling and analysis offer tools that make it feasible for experiments to move beyond rigid independent and identically distributed trial structures. Here we review literature that serves as evidence for the feasibility and advantages of moving beyond trial-based paradigms to understand the neural basis of perception and cognition. Furthermore, we propose a synthesis of these efforts, integrating the characterization of natural stimulus properties with measurements of continuous neural activity and behavioral outputs within the framework of sensory-cognitive-motor loops. Such a framework provides a basis for the study of natural statistics, naturalistic tasks, and/or slow fluctuations in brain activity, which should provide starting points for important generalizations of analytical tools in neuroscience and subsequent progress in understanding the neural basis of perception and cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Huk
- Center for Perceptual Systems,
- Institute for Neuroscience
- Departments of Psychology and Neuroscience, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin 78712, Texas, and
| | | | - Biyu J He
- Departments of Neurology, Neuroscience and Physiology, and Radiology, Neuroscience Institute, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, New York 10016
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Christopoulos VN, Kagan I, Andersen RA. Lateral intraparietal area (LIP) is largely effector-specific in free-choice decisions. Sci Rep 2018; 8:8611. [PMID: 29872059 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-26366-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2017] [Accepted: 05/08/2018] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Despite many years of intense research, there is no strong consensus about the role of the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) in decision making. One view of LIP function is that it guides spatial attention, providing a “saliency map” of the external world. If this were the case, it would contribute to target selection regardless of which action would be performed to implement the choice. On the other hand, LIP inactivation has been shown to influence spatial selection and oculomotor metrics in free-choice decisions, which are made using eye movements, arguing that it contributes to saccade decisions. To dissociate between a more general attention role and a more effector specific saccade role, we reversibly inactivated LIP while non-human primates freely selected between two targets, presented in the two hemifields, with either saccades or reaches. Unilateral LIP inactivation induced a strong choice bias to ipsilesional targets when decisions were made with saccades. Interestingly, the inactivation also caused a reduction of contralesional choices when decisions were made with reaches, albeit the effect was less pronounced. These findings suggest that LIP is part of a network for making oculomotor decisions and is largely effector-specific in free-choice decisions.
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Bode S, Bennett D, Sewell DK, Paton B, Egan GF, Smith PL, Murawski C. Dissociating neural variability related to stimulus quality and response times in perceptual decision-making. Neuropsychologia 2018; 111:190-200. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.01.040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2017] [Revised: 01/25/2018] [Accepted: 01/27/2018] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
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