title: Distinct effects of prefrontal and parietal cortex inactivations on an accumulation of evidence task in the rat.
abstract: Numerous brain regions have been shown to have neural correlates of gradually accumulating evidence for decision-making, but the causal roles of these regions in decisions driven by accumulation of evidence have yet to be determined. Here, in rats performing an auditory evidence accumulation task, we inactivated the frontal orienting fields (FOF) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC), two rat cortical regions that have neural correlates of accumulating evidence and that have been proposed as central to decision-making. We used a detailed model of the decision process to analyze the effect of inactivations. Inactivation of the FOF induced substantial performance impairments that were quantitatively best described as an impairment in the output pathway of an evidence accumulator with a long integration time constant (>240 ms). In contrast, we found a minimal role for PPC in decisions guided by accumulating auditory evidence, even while finding a strong role for PPC in internally-guided decisions.
authors: NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science, NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China.
authors: Jeffrey C
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9073-7986
authors: JC
authors: Erlich
authors: Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States.
authors: Bingni W
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4831-3466
authors: BW
authors: Brunton
authors: Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States.
authors: Chunyu A
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3095-8653
authors: CA
authors: Duan
authors: Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States.
authors: Timothy D
authors: TD
authors: Hanks
authors: Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States.
authors: Carlos D
authors: CD
authors: Brody
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D015982:Bias; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002755:Choice Behavior; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis
keywords: accumulation; decision-making; inactivation; modeling; neuroscience; rat