title: Strength of figure-ground activity in monkey primary visual cortex predicts saccadic reaction time in a delayed detection task.
abstract: When and where are decisions made? In the visual system a saccade, which is a fast shift of gaze toward a target in the visual scene, is the behavioral outcome of a decision. Current neurophysiological data and reaction time models show that saccadic reaction times are determined by a build-up of activity in motor-related structures, such as the frontal eye fields. These structures depend on the sensory evidence of the stimulus. Here we use a delayed figure-ground detection task to show that late modulated activity in the visual cortex (V1) predicts saccadic reaction time. This predictive activity is part of the process of figure-ground segregation and is specific for the saccade target location. These observations indicate that sensory signals are directly involved in the decision of when and where to look.
authors.affiliation: ICREA & Dep. Psicología Básica, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Barcelona, 08035 Barcelona, Spain. hans.super@icrea.es
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Supèr
authors.forename: Victor A F
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Lamme
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014836:Volition / Q000502:physiology