1. Neuroscience

Causal contribution and dynamical encoding in the striatum during evidence accumulation

  1. Michael M Yartsev  Is a corresponding author
  2. Timothy D Hanks  Is a corresponding author
  3. Alice Misun Yoon
  4. Carlos D Brody  Is a corresponding author
  1. Princeton University, United States
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.34929
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  1. Michael M Yartsev
  2. Timothy D Hanks
  3. Alice Misun Yoon
  4. Carlos D Brody
(2018)
Causal contribution and dynamical encoding in the striatum during evidence accumulation
eLife 7:e34929.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.34929
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Abstract

A broad range of decision-making processes involve gradual accumulation of evidence over time, but the neural circuits responsible for this computation are not yet established. Recent data indicates that cortical regions prominently associated with accumulating evidence, such as posterior parietal cortex and the frontal orienting fields, may not be directly involved in this computation. Which, then, are the regions involved? Regions directly involved in evidence accumulation should directly influence the accumulation-based decision-making behavior, have a graded neural encoding of accumulated evidence and contribute throughout the accumulation process. Here, we investigated the role of the anterior dorsal striatum (ADS) in a rodent auditory evidence accumulation task using a combination of behavioral, pharmacological, optogenetic, electrophysiological and computational approaches. We find that the ADS is the first brain region known to satisfy the three criteria. Thus, the ADS may be the first identified node in the network responsible for evidence accumulation.

Data availability

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Michael M Yartsev

    Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States
    For correspondence
    myartsev@berkeley.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-0952-2801

  2. Timothy D Hanks

    Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States
    For correspondence
    thanks@ucdavis.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-4147-4475

  3. Alice Misun Yoon

    Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-7832-2796

  4. Carlos D Brody

    Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States
    For correspondence
    brody@princeton.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-4201-561X

Funding

National Institutes of Health (R01MH108358)

  • Carlos D Brody

Starr Foundation (Starr Fellowship)

  • Michael M Yartsev

National Institutes of Health (F32MH098572)

  • Timothy D Hanks

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

Reviewing Editor

  1. Joshua I Gold, University of Pennsylvania, United States

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All animal procedures described in this study were approved by the Princeton University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC; Protocols #1853) and carried out in accordance with National Institutes of Health standards.

Version history

  1. Received: January 9, 2018
  2. Accepted: August 23, 2018
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: August 24, 2018 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: September 20, 2018 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2018, Yartsev et al.

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.

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  1. Michael M Yartsev
  2. Timothy D Hanks
  3. Alice Misun Yoon
  4. Carlos D Brody
(2018)
Causal contribution and dynamical encoding in the striatum during evidence accumulation
eLife 7:e34929.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.34929

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.34929

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