title: Decoding a perceptual decision process across cortex.
abstract: Perceptual decisions arise from the activity of neurons distributed across brain circuits. But, decoding the mechanisms behind this cognitive operation across brain circuits has long posed a difficult problem. We recorded the neuronal activity of diverse cortical areas, while monkeys performed a vibrotactile discrimination task. We find that the encoding of the stimuli during the stimulus periods, working memory, and comparison periods is widely distributed across cortical areas. Notably, during the comparison and postponed decision report periods the activity of frontal brain circuits encode both the result of the sensory evaluation that corresponds to the monkey's possible choices and past information on which the decision is based. These results suggest that frontal lobe circuits are more engaged in the readout of sensory information from working memory, when it is required to be compared with other sensory inputs, than simply engaged in motor responses during this task.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Fisiología Celular-Neurociencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 04510 México, D.F., Mexico.
authors.forename: Adrián
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hernández
authors.forename: Verónica
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Nácher
authors.forename: Rogelio
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Luna
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zainos
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lemus
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alvarez
authors.forename: Yuriria
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Vázquez
authors.forename: Liliana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Camarillo
authors.forename: Ranulfo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Romo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D004594:Electrophysiology; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010812:Physical Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D014732:Vibration