Slow Drift of Neural Activity as a Signature of Impulsivity in Macaque Visual and Prefrontal Cortex

Cowley, Benjamin R, Snyder, Adam C, Acar, Katerina, Williamson, Ryan C, Yu, Byron M, Smith, Matthew A (November 2020) Slow Drift of Neural Activity as a Signature of Impulsivity in Macaque Visual and Prefrontal Cortex. Neuron, 108 (3). 551-567.e8. ISSN 0896-6273

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Abstract

An animal's decision depends not only on incoming sensory evidence but also on its fluctuating internal state. This state embodies multiple cognitive factors, such as arousal and fatigue, but it is unclear how these factors influence the neural processes that encode sensory stimuli and form a decision. We discovered that, unprompted by task conditions, animals slowly shifted their likelihood of detecting stimulus changes over the timescale of tens of minutes. Neural population activity from visual area V4, as well as from prefrontal cortex, slowly drifted together with these behavioral fluctuations. We found that this slow drift, rather than altering the encoding of the sensory stimulus, acted as an impulsivity signal, overriding sensory evidence to dictate the final decision. Overall, this work uncovers an internal state embedded in population activity across multiple brain areas and sheds further light on how internal states contribute to the decision-making process.

Item Type: Paper
Subjects: organism description > animal
organism description > animal behavior
organism description > animal behavior > attention
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions
organism description > animal behavior > decision making
organism description > animal > mammal
organism description > animal > mammal > primates > monkey
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types > neurons
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types > neurons
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types > neurons
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions
organism description > animal > mammal > primates
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > tissues types and functions
organism description > animal behavior > visual
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > tissues types and functions > visual cortex
organism description > animal behavior > visual discrimination
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Cowley lab
SWORD Depositor: CSHL Elements
Depositing User: CSHL Elements
Date: 11 November 2020
Date Deposited: 22 May 2024 19:58
Last Modified: 22 May 2024 19:58
PMCID: PMC7822647
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/41559

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