Sequential sensory and decision processing in posterior parietal cortex

Abstract
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Abstract

Decisions about the behavioral significance of sensory stimuli often require comparing sensory inference of what we are looking at to internal models of what we are looking for. Here, we test how neuronal selectivity for visual features is transformed into decision-related signals in posterior parietal cortex (area LIP). Monkeys performed a visual matching task that required them to detect target stimuli composed of conjunctions of color and motion-direction. Neuronal recordings from area LIP revealed two main findings. First, the sequential processing of visual features and the selection of target-stimuli suggest that LIP is involved in transforming sensory information into decision-related signals. Second, the patterns of color and motion selectivity and their impact on decision-related encoding suggest that LIP plays a role in detecting target stimuli by comparing bottom-up sensory inputs (what the monkeys were looking at) and top-down cognitive encoding inputs (what the monkeys were looking for).

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Guilhem Ibos

Department of Neurobiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, United States

For correspondence
guilhemibos@gmail.com

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9280-1280
David J Freedman

Department of Neurobiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-2485-5981

Funding

National Institutes of Health (R01 EY019041)

David J Freedman

National Science Foundation (955640)

David J Freedman

McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience

David J Freedman

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: This study was performed in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health. All experimental procedures were in accordance with the University of Chicago Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), protocol #71887, of the University of Chicago and National Institutes of Health guidelines.

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.