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A Common Cortical Circuit Mechanism for Perceptual Categorical Discrimination and Veridical Judgment

Perception involves two types of decisions about the sensory world: identification of stimulus features as analog quantities, or discrimination of the same stimulus features among a set of discrete alternatives. Veridical judgment and categorical discrimination have traditionally been conceptualized...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Liu, Feng, Wang, Xiao-Jing
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2008
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2596311/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19112487
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000253
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author Liu, Feng
Wang, Xiao-Jing
author_facet Liu, Feng
Wang, Xiao-Jing
author_sort Liu, Feng
collection PubMed
description Perception involves two types of decisions about the sensory world: identification of stimulus features as analog quantities, or discrimination of the same stimulus features among a set of discrete alternatives. Veridical judgment and categorical discrimination have traditionally been conceptualized as two distinct computational problems. Here, we found that these two types of decision making can be subserved by a shared cortical circuit mechanism. We used a continuous recurrent network model to simulate two monkey experiments in which subjects were required to make either a two-alternative forced choice or a veridical judgment about the direction of random-dot motion. The model network is endowed with a continuum of bell-shaped population activity patterns, each representing a possible motion direction. Slow recurrent excitation underlies accumulation of sensory evidence, and its interplay with strong recurrent inhibition leads to decision behaviors. The model reproduced the monkey's performance as well as single-neuron activity in the categorical discrimination task. Furthermore, we examined how direction identification is determined by a combination of sensory stimulation and microstimulation. Using a population-vector measure, we found that direction judgments instantiate winner-take-all (with the population vector coinciding with either the coherent motion direction or the electrically elicited motion direction) when two stimuli are far apart, or vector averaging (with the population vector falling between the two directions) when two stimuli are close to each other. Interestingly, for a broad range of intermediate angular distances between the two stimuli, the network displays a mixed strategy in the sense that direction estimates are stochastically produced by winner-take-all on some trials and by vector averaging on the other trials, a model prediction that is experimentally testable. This work thus lends support to a common neurodynamic framework for both veridical judgment and categorical discrimination in perceptual decision making.
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spelling pubmed-25963112008-12-26 A Common Cortical Circuit Mechanism for Perceptual Categorical Discrimination and Veridical Judgment Liu, Feng Wang, Xiao-Jing PLoS Comput Biol Research Article Perception involves two types of decisions about the sensory world: identification of stimulus features as analog quantities, or discrimination of the same stimulus features among a set of discrete alternatives. Veridical judgment and categorical discrimination have traditionally been conceptualized as two distinct computational problems. Here, we found that these two types of decision making can be subserved by a shared cortical circuit mechanism. We used a continuous recurrent network model to simulate two monkey experiments in which subjects were required to make either a two-alternative forced choice or a veridical judgment about the direction of random-dot motion. The model network is endowed with a continuum of bell-shaped population activity patterns, each representing a possible motion direction. Slow recurrent excitation underlies accumulation of sensory evidence, and its interplay with strong recurrent inhibition leads to decision behaviors. The model reproduced the monkey's performance as well as single-neuron activity in the categorical discrimination task. Furthermore, we examined how direction identification is determined by a combination of sensory stimulation and microstimulation. Using a population-vector measure, we found that direction judgments instantiate winner-take-all (with the population vector coinciding with either the coherent motion direction or the electrically elicited motion direction) when two stimuli are far apart, or vector averaging (with the population vector falling between the two directions) when two stimuli are close to each other. Interestingly, for a broad range of intermediate angular distances between the two stimuli, the network displays a mixed strategy in the sense that direction estimates are stochastically produced by winner-take-all on some trials and by vector averaging on the other trials, a model prediction that is experimentally testable. This work thus lends support to a common neurodynamic framework for both veridical judgment and categorical discrimination in perceptual decision making. Public Library of Science 2008-12-26 /pmc/articles/PMC2596311/ /pubmed/19112487 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000253 Text en Liu, Wang. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Liu, Feng
Wang, Xiao-Jing
A Common Cortical Circuit Mechanism for Perceptual Categorical Discrimination and Veridical Judgment
title A Common Cortical Circuit Mechanism for Perceptual Categorical Discrimination and Veridical Judgment
title_full A Common Cortical Circuit Mechanism for Perceptual Categorical Discrimination and Veridical Judgment
title_fullStr A Common Cortical Circuit Mechanism for Perceptual Categorical Discrimination and Veridical Judgment
title_full_unstemmed A Common Cortical Circuit Mechanism for Perceptual Categorical Discrimination and Veridical Judgment
title_short A Common Cortical Circuit Mechanism for Perceptual Categorical Discrimination and Veridical Judgment
title_sort common cortical circuit mechanism for perceptual categorical discrimination and veridical judgment
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2596311/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19112487
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000253
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