DOI: 10.5061/dryad.2rbnzs7w1
title: Decision-related activity and movement selection in primate visual cortex

description: Fluctuations in the activity of sensory neurons often predict perceptual
 decisions. This connection can be quantified with a metric called choice
 probability (CP), and there has been a longstanding debate about whether
 CP reflects a causal influence on decisions, or an echo of decision-making
 activity elsewhere in the brain. Here we show that CP can actually reflect
 a third variable, namely the movement used to indicate the decision. In a
 standard visual motion discrimination task, neurons in the middle temporal
 (MT) area of the primate visual cortex responded more strongly during
 trials in which the animals executed a saccade toward their receptive
 fields, and less strongly for saccades directed away from the receptive
 fields. The resulting trial-to-trial variability accounted for much of the
 CP observed across the neuronal population, and it arose through training.
 The learned association between MT activity and oculomotor selection was
 causal, as pharmacological inactivation of MT neurons biased behavioral
 responses away from the corresponding receptive field locations. These
 results demonstrate that training on a task with fixed sensorimotor
 contingencies introduces movement-related activity in sensory brain
 regions, and that this plasticity can shape the neural circuitry of
 perceptual decision-making.
description: # Decision-related activity and movement selection in primate visual
 cortex This dataset,
 provided in MATLAB file format (.mat), offers a comprehensive summary of
 experimental results: * CP_preGrating.mat: This file include the computed
 choice probabilities (CP) of all neurons recorded in phase 1 for grating
 stimuli plotted in figure 3. * CP_dots.mat: This file include the computed
 choice probabilities (CP) of all neurons recorded in phase 2 for random
 dot stimuli plotted in figure 2 and 3. * CP_postGrating.mat: This file
 include the computed choice probabilities (CP) of all neurons recorded in
 phase 2 for grating stimuli plotted in figure 3. * Timing.mat: This file
 is included to specify the time window for each column in the CP files
 plotted in figure 2 and 3. * PreGrating_CP_vs_Angle.mat: A file contains
 data of CP against each recording site’s degree of congruency defined as
 the angle between the receptive field position and the saccade endpoint
 associated with the preferred visual motion direction for gratings in
 phase 1 (Figure 4). * dots_CP_vs_Angle.mat: A file contains data of CP
 against each recording site’s degree of congruency defined as the angle
 between the receptive field position and the saccade endpoint associated
 with the preferred visual motion direction for dots in phase 2 (Figure 4).
 * PostGrating_CP_vs_Angle.mat: A file contains data of CP against each
 recording site’s degree of congruency defined as the angle between the
 receptive field position and the saccade endpoint associated with the
 preferred visual motion direction for gratings in phase 2 (Figure 4). *
 PreGrating_CP_vs_Distance.mat: A file contains data of CP against each
 recording site’s degree of congruency defined as the Euclidean distance
 between the RF position and the preferred saccade target for gratings in
 phase 1 (Figure 4). * dots_CP_vs\_ Distance.mat: A file contains data of
 CP against each recording site’s degree of congruency defined as the
 Euclidean distance between the RF position and the preferred saccade
 target for dots in phase 2 (Figure 4). * PostGrating *CP_vs* Distance.mat:
 A file contains data of CP against each recording site’s degree of
 congruency defined as the Euclidean distance between the RF position and
 the preferred saccade target for gratings in phase 2 (Figure 4). *
 Bias_Before_and_After_Muscimol.mat: This folder contains all computed
 behavioral bias values across various contrast levels in phases 1 and 2
 for gratings, both before and after the injection of muscimol (Figure 5).
 * Psychometrics data.mat files: Includes all data used to plot
 psychometric curves individually for each monkey, both before and after
 the injection of muscimol (Figure 5).