Active encoding of decisions about stimulus absence in primate prefrontal cortex neurons.

ABSTRACT: Judging the presence or absence of a stimulus is likely the most basic perceptual decision. A fundamental difference of detection tasks in contrast to discrimination tasks is that only the stimulus presence decision can be inferred from sensory evidence, whereas the alternative decision about stimulus absence lacks sensory evidence by definition. Detection decisions have been studied in an intentional, action-based framework, in which decisions were regarded as intentions to pursue particular actions. These studies have found that only stimulus-present decisions are actively encoded by neurons, whereas the decision about the absence of a stimulus does not affect default neuronal responses. We tested whether this processing mechanism also holds for abstract detection decisions that are diss

SUBMITTER: Merten K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3341060 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature