title: Effects of cortical microstimulation on confidence in a perceptual decision.
abstract: Decisions are often associated with a degree of certainty, or confidence--an estimate of the probability that the chosen option will be correct. Recent neurophysiological results suggest that the central processing of evidence leading to a perceptual decision also establishes a level of confidence. Here we provide a causal test of this hypothesis by electrically stimulating areas of the visual cortex involved in motion perception. Monkeys discriminated the direction of motion in a noisy display and were sometimes allowed to opt out of the direction choice if their confidence was low. Microstimulation did not reduce overall confidence in the decision but instead altered confidence in a manner that mimicked a change in visual motion, plus a small increase in sensory noise. The results suggest that the same sensory neural signals support choice, reaction time, and confidence in a decision and that artificial manipulation of these signals preserves the quantitative relationship between accumulated evidence and confidence.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Neuroscience and Kavli Institute for Brain Science, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Fetsch
authors.affiliation: Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA.
authors.forename: Roozbeh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kiani
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
authors.forename: William T
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Newsome
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Neuroscience and Kavli Institute for Brain Science, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA. Electronic address: shadlen@columbia.edu.
authors.forename: Michael N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Shadlen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*