Motion perception: seeing and deciding.

TLDR

The primate visual system provides a unique platform for studying cognition, as even simple visual discrimination tasks involve sensory processing, decision formation, and motor execution, and understanding these processes could illuminate key cognitive neuroscience questions. The study aims to investigate the neural basis of simple visual decisions linking sensation to action using the primate visual and oculomotor systems. We recorded neural activity in the lateral intraparietal area of alert monkeys while they discriminated motion direction in a visual display. A subset of LIP neurons carried high‑level signals that are neither purely sensory nor motor but reflect integration of sensory information toward a decision guiding movement, suggesting a neural correlate of the decision process.

Abstract

The primate visual system offers unprecedented opportunities for investigating the neural basis of cognition. Even the simplest visual discrimination task requires processing of sensory signals, formation of a decision, and orchestration of a motor response. With our extensive knowledge of the primate visual and oculomotor systems as a base, it is now possible to investigate the neural basis of simple visual decisions that link sensation to action. Here we describe an initial study of neural responses in the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) of the cerebral cortex while alert monkeys discriminated the direction of motion in a visual display. A subset of LIP neurons carried high-level signals that may comprise a neural correlate of the decision process in our task. These signals are neither sensory nor motor in the strictest sense; rather they appear to reflect integration of sensory signals toward a decision appropriate for guiding movement. If this ultimately proves to be the case, several fascinating issues in cognitive neuroscience will be brought under rigorous physiological scrutiny.