Citation

Kayser AS, Buchsbaum BR, Erickson DT, D'Esposito M. J. Neurophysiol. 2010; 103(3): 1179-1194.

Affiliation

U.C. San Francisco.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, American Physiological Society)

DOI

10.1152/jn.00364.2009

PMID

20032247

PMCID

PMC2887630

Abstract

Our ability to make rapid decisions based on sensory information belies the complexity of the underlying computations. Recently, "accumulator" models of decision-making have been shown to explain the activity of parietal neurons as macaques make judgments concerning visual motion. Unraveling the operation of a decision-making circuit, however, involves understanding both the responses of individual components in the neural circuitry and the relationships between them. In this fMRI study of the decision process in humans, we demonstrate that an accumulator model predicts responses to visual motion in the intraparietal sulcus (IPS). Significantly, the metrics used to define responses within the IPS also reveal distinct but interacting nodes in a circuit including early sensory detectors in visual cortex, the visuo-motor integration system of the IPS, and centers of cognitive control in the prefrontal cortex, all of which collectively define a perceptual decision-making network.

Language: en