Decoding and perturbing decision states in real time

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 591; no. 7851; pp. 604 - 609
• Main Authors: Peixoto, Diogo, Verhein, Jessica R., Kiani, Roozbeh, Kao, Jonathan C., Nuyujukian, Paul, Chandrasekaran, Chandramouli, Brown, Julian, Fong, Sania, Ryu, Stephen I., Shenoy, Krishna V., Newsome, William T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 25.03.2021; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/378/116/2394; 631/378/2629/1409; 631/378/2632/2634; 631/378/2632/2635; 631/378/2649/1409; Accuracy; Analysis; Animals; Behavior; Choice Behavior - physiology; Cortex (motor); Decision making; Decision Making - physiology; Decision tree; Decoding (Reading); Discrimination, Psychological; Experiments; Feedback control; Fluctuations; Humanities and Social Sciences; Judgment; Macaca - physiology; Macaques; Methods; Models, Neurological; Motion; Motion Perception; multidisciplinary; Perturbation (Mathematics); Photic Stimulation; Physiological aspects; Population; Real time; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Signal processing; Statistical methods; Time Factors; Visual stimuli; United States
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-03181-9

In dynamic environments, subjects often integrate multiple samples of a signal and combine them to reach a categorical judgment 1 . The process of deliberation can be described by a time-varying decision variable (DV), decoded from neural population activity, that predicts a subject’s upcoming decision 2 . Within single trials, however, there are large moment-to-moment fluctuations in the DV, the behavioural significance of which is unclear. Here, using real-time, neural feedback control of stimulus duration, we show that within-trial DV fluctuations, decoded from motor cortex, are tightly linked to decision state in macaques, predicting behavioural choices substantially better than the condition-averaged DV or the visual stimulus alone. Furthermore, robust changes in DV sign have the statistical regularities expected from behavioural studies of changes of mind 3 . Probing the decision process on single trials with weak stimulus pulses, we find evidence for time-varying absorbing decision bounds, enabling us to distinguish between specific models of decision making. In macaque motor cortex, moment-to-moment fluctuations in neurally derived decision variables are tightly linked to decision state and predict behavioural choices with better accuracy than condition-averaged decision variables or the visual stimulus alone, and can be used to distinguish between different models of decision making.