Causal Role for the Primate Superior Colliculus in the Computation of Evidence for Perceptual Decisions

Overview

Journal Nat Neurosci

Date 2021 Jun 29

PMID 34183869

Citations 31

Authors

Elizabeth J Jun

Alex R Bautista

Michael D Nunez

Daicia C Allen

Jung H Tak

Eduardo Alvarez

Michele A Basso

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Trained monkeys performed a two-choice perceptual decision-making task in which they reported the perceived orientation of a dynamic Glass pattern, before and after unilateral, reversible, inactivation of a brainstem area-the superior colliculus (SC)-involved in preparing eye movements. We found that unilateral SC inactivation produced significant decision biases and changes in reaction times consistent with a causal role for the primate SC in perceptual decision-making. Fitting signal detection theory and sequential sampling models to the data showed that SC inactivation produced a decrease in the relative evidence for contralateral decisions, as if adding a constant offset to a time-varying evidence signal for the ipsilateral choice. The results provide causal evidence for an embodied cognition model of perceptual decision-making and provide compelling evidence that the SC of primates (a brainstem structure) plays a causal role in how evidence is computed for decisions-a process usually attributed to the forebrain.

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