TY - JOUR TI - Serial, parallel and hierarchical decision making in primates AU - Zylberberg, Ariel AU - Lorteije, Jeannette AM AU - Ouellette, Brian G AU - De Zeeuw, Chris I AU - Sigman, Mariano AU - Roelfsema, Pieter A2 - Gold, Joshua I VL - 6 PY - 2017 DA - 2017/06/26 SP - e17331 C1 - eLife 2017;6:e17331 DO - 10.7554/eLife.17331 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.17331 AB - The study of decision-making has mainly focused on isolated decisions where choices are associated with motor actions. However, problem-solving often involves considering a hierarchy of sub-decisions. In a recent study (Lorteije et al. 2015), we reported behavioral and neuronal evidence for hierarchical decision making in a task with a small decision tree. We observed a first phase of parallel evidence integration for multiple sub-decisions, followed by a phase in which the overall strategy formed. It has been suggested that a 'flat' competition between the ultimate motor actions might also explain these results. A reanalysis of the data does not support the critical predictions of flat models. We also examined the time-course of decision making in other, related tasks and report conditions where evidence integration for successive decisions is decoupled, which excludes flat models. We conclude that the flexibility of decision-making implies that the strategies are genuinely hierarchical. KW - decision-making KW - hierarchical model KW - visual cortex KW - decision tree JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -