Neural population code for fine perceptual decisions in area MT
Abstract
In the middle temporal (MT) area of primates, many motion-sensitive neurons with a wide range of preferred directions respond to a stimulus moving in a single direction. These neurons are involved in direction perception, but it is not clear how perceptual decisions are related to the population response. We recorded the activities of MT neurons in rhesus monkeys while they discriminated closely related directions, and examined the relationship between the activities of neurons tuned to different directions and the monkeys' choices. Perceptual decisions were significantly correlated with the activities of the highest-precision neurons but not with those of the lowest-precision neurons. The combined performance of the high-precision neurons matched the monkeys' behavior, whereas the ability to predict behavior based on the entire active population was poor. These results suggest that fine discrimination decisions are crucially dependent on the activities of the most informative neurons.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The 90° separation in a 2-choice task increased difficulty slightly.
“Although this angle remains large compared to fine discriminations that humans and monkeys can make 22–24, it did increase difficulty slightly, as shown by 90° separation in a 2-choice task.”
From Decision-making with multiple alternatives (2008) · cites this paper as [23]
The experiment is not definitive about how the computation generalizes to more directions and choices, in part because the angle between alternatives is large compared to the range of angles that primates can discriminate.
“Our experiment is not definitive here, in part because the angle between alternatives is large compared to the range of angles that primates can discriminate 22–24.”
From Decision-making with multiple alternatives (2008) · cites this paper as [23]
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 49 · Cited by 309
- Authors
- Purushothaman, G., & Bradley, D. C.
- Affiliations
- University of Chicago (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bradley, David C
- Venue
- Nature Neuroscience
- Published
- 2004-12-19
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 99-106
- ISSN
- 1097-6256 (ISSN-L)
- 1546-1726
- OpenAlex
- W2136555573
- Cited by
- 309
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 20
- FWCI
- 7.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Eye Institute (R01EY013138)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
- Keywords
- middle temporal area, MT neurons, direction perception, direction discrimination, perceptual decision making, neural population codes, direction-selective neurons, rhesus monkeys, neural decoding
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Behavior, Animal, Choice Behavior, Discrimination, Psychological, Macaca mulatta, Models, Neurological, Neurons, Psychophysics, Space Perception, Temporal Lobe
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
