title: Comment on "Single-trial spike trains in parietal cortex reveal discrete steps during decision-making".
abstract: Latimeret al (Reports, 10 July 2015, p. 184) claim that during perceptual decision formation, parietal neurons undergo one-time, discrete steps in firing rate instead of gradual changes that represent the accumulation of evidence. However, that conclusion rests on unsubstantiated assumptions about the time window of evidence accumulation, and their stepping model cannot explain existing data as effectively as evidence-accumulation models.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. shadlen@columbia.edu.
authors.forename: Michael N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Shadlen
authors.affiliation: Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Roozbeh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kiani
authors.affiliation: HHMI and Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
authors.forename: William T
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Newsome
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Joshua I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Gold
authors.affiliation: Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Daniel M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Wolpert
authors.affiliation: HHMI and Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Ariel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zylberberg
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuroscience and Department of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Jochen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ditterich
authors.affiliation: Institute for Neuroscience, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Querétaro, México.
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: de Lafuente
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Tianming
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Jamie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Roitman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*