Mice alternate between discrete strategies during perceptual decision-making

Classical models of perceptual decision-making assume that subjects use a single, consistent strategy to form decisions, or that decision-making strategies evolve slowly over time. Here we present new analyses suggesting that this common view is incorrect. We analyzed data from mouse and human decis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNature neuroscience Vol. 25; no. 2; pp. 201 - 212
Main Authors Ashwood, Zoe C., Roy, Nicholas A., Stone, Iris R., Urai, Anne E., Churchland, Anne K., Pouget, Alexandre, Pillow, Jonathan W.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Nature Publishing Group US 01.02.2022
Nature Publishing Group
Subjects
631/378/116
631/378/2649/1409
Animal Genetics and Genomics
Animals
Behavioral Sciences
Biological Techniques
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Choice Behavior
Decision analysis
Decision Making
Humans
Markov chains
Mice
Neurobiology
Neurosciences
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Summary:Classical models of perceptual decision-making assume that subjects use a single, consistent strategy to form decisions, or that decision-making strategies evolve slowly over time. Here we present new analyses suggesting that this common view is incorrect. We analyzed data from mouse and human decision-making experiments and found that choice behavior relies on an interplay among multiple interleaved strategies. These strategies, characterized by states in a hidden Markov model, persist for tens to hundreds of trials before switching, and often switch multiple times within a session. The identified decision-making strategies were highly consistent across mice and comprised a single ‘engaged’ state, in which decisions relied heavily on the sensory stimulus, and several biased states in which errors frequently occurred. These results provide a powerful alternate explanation for ‘lapses’ often observed in rodent behavioral experiments, and suggest that standard measures of performance mask the presence of major changes in strategy across trials. The authors implement model-based analyses to uncover strategies used by mice and humans during sensory decision-making. Contrary to common wisdom, mice do not lapse and, instead, switch between sustained engaged and disengaged states.
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A list of authors appears at the end of the paper.
Author Contributions Statement
Conceptualization, Z.C.A. and J.W.P.; Methodology, Z.C.A. and J.W.P.; Additional Technical and Analysis Support, N.A.R., I.R.S., A.E.U., A.K.C., A.P.; Implementation, Z.C.A.; Data Collection and Curation, A.E.U., A.K.C. and the IBL; Writing – Original Draft, Z.C.A. and J.W.P.; Writing – Review & Editing, Z.C.A., N.A.R., I.R.S., the IBL, A.E.U., A.K.C., A.P. and J.W.P.; Visualization, Z.C.A. and J.W.P.; Supervision, A.P. and J.W.P.; Project Administration, Z.C.A. and J.W.P.; Funding Acquisition, the IBL, A.E.U., A.K.C., A.P. and J.W.P.
ISSN:1097-6256
1546-1726
1546-1726
DOI:10.1038/s41593-021-01007-z