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Causal contribution of primate auditory cortex to auditory perceptual decision-making.

ABSTRACT: Auditory perceptual decisions are thought to be mediated by the ventral auditory pathway. However, the specific and causal contributions of different brain regions in this pathway, including the middle-lateral (ML) and anterolateral (AL) belt regions of the auditory cortex, to auditory decisions have not been fully identified. To identify these contributions, we recorded from and microstimulated ML and AL sites while monkeys decided whether an auditory stimulus contained more low-frequency or high-frequency tone bursts. Both ML and AL neural activity was modulated by the frequency content of the stimulus. But, only the responses of the most stimulus-sensitive AL neurons were systematically modulated by the monkeys' choices. Consistent with this observation, microstimulation of AL, but not ML, systematically biased the monkeys' behavior toward the choice associated with the preferred frequency of the stimulated site. Together, these findings suggest that AL directly and causally contributes sensory evidence to form this auditory decision.

SUBMITTER: Tsunada J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4696881 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Causal contribution of primate auditory cortex to auditory perceptual decision-making.

Tsunada Joji J Liu Andrew S K AS Gold Joshua I JI Cohen Yale E YE

Nature neuroscience 20151214 1

Auditory perceptual decisions are thought to be mediated by the ventral auditory pathway. However, the specific and causal contributions of different brain regions in this pathway, including the middle-lateral (ML) and anterolateral (AL) belt regions of the auditory cortex, to auditory decisions have not been fully identified. To identify these contributions, we recorded from and microstimulated ML and AL sites while monkeys decided whether an auditory stimulus contained more low-frequency or hi ...[more]

PMID: 26656644

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Project description:The ability to make decisions based on external information, prior knowledge, and evidence is a crucial aspect of cognition and may determine the success and survival of an organism. Despite extensive work on decision-making mechanisms/models, understanding the effects of alertness on neural and cognitive processes remain limited. Here we use EEG and behavioral modeling to characterize cognitive and neural dynamics of perceptual decision-making in awake/low alertness periods in humans (14 male, 18 female) and characterize the compensatory mechanisms as alertness decreases. Well-rested human participants, changing between full-wakefulness and low alertness, performed an auditory tone-localization task, and its behavioral dynamics were quantified with psychophysics, signal detection theory, and drift-diffusion modeling, revealing slower reaction times, inattention to the left side of space, and a lower rate of evidence accumulation in periods of low alertness. Unconstrained multivariate pattern analysis (decoding) showed a ∼280 ms delayed onset driven by low alertness of the neural signatures differentiating between left and right decision, with a spatial reconfiguration from centroparietal to lateral frontal regions 150-360 ms. To understand the neural compensatory mechanisms with decreasing alertness, we connected the evidence-accumulation behavioral parameter to the neural activity, showing in the early periods (125-325 ms) a shift in the associated patterns from right parietal regions in awake, to right frontoparietal during low alertness. This change in the neurobehavioral dynamics for central accumulation-related cognitive processes defines a clear reconfiguration of the brain networks' regions and dynamics needed for the implementation of decision-making, revealing mechanisms of resilience of cognition when challenged by decreased alertness.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Most living organisms make multiple daily decisions, and these require a degree of evidence from both the environment and the internal milieu. Such decisions are usually studied under sequential sampling models and involve making a behavioral choice based on sensory encoding, central accumulation, and motor implementation processes. Since there is little research on how decreasing alertness affects such cognitive processes, this study has looked at the cognitive and neural dynamics of perceptual decision-making in people while fully awake and in drowsy periods. Using computational modeling of behavior and neural dynamics on human participants performing an auditory tone-localization task, we reveal how low alertness modulates evidence accumulation-related processes and its corresponding compensatory neural signatures.

Dataset Information

Causal contribution of primate auditory cortex to auditory perceptual decision-making.

Publications

Causal contribution of primate auditory cortex to auditory perceptual decision-making.

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