Separate, causal roles of the caudate in saccadic choice and execution in a perceptual decision task.

ABSTRACT: In contrast to the well-established roles of the striatum in movement generation and value-based decisions, its contributions to perceptual decisions lack direct experimental support. Here, we show that electrical microstimulation in the monkey caudate nucleus influences both choice and saccade response time on a visual motion discrimination task. Within a drift-diffusion framework, these effects consist of two components. The perceptual component biases choices toward ipsilateral targets, away from the neurons' predominantly contralateral response fields. The choice bias is consistent with a nonzero starting value of the diffusion process, which increases and decreases decision times for contralateral and ipsilateral choices, respectively. The nonperceptual component decreases and increas

SUBMITTER: Ding L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3446771 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature