Local Computation of Decision-Relevant Net Sensory Evidence in Parietal Cortex

To investigate the contribution of parietal cortex to perceptual decisions, we trained monkeys on a perceptual decision task that allowed simultaneous experimental control over how much sensory evidence was provided for each of 3 possible alternative choices and recorded single unit activity and local field potentials (LFPs) from the lateral intraparietal area (LIP). While both the behavior and the spiking activity were largely determined by the difference between how much supporting sensory evidence was provided for a particular choice (pro evidence) and how much sensory evidence was provided for the other alternatives (anti evidence), the LFP reflected roughly the sum of these 2 components. Furthermore, the firing rates showed an earlier influence of the anti evidence than the pro evidence. These observations indicate that LIP does not simply receive already precomputed decision signals but that it plays an active role in computing the decision-relevant net sensory evidence and that this local computation is reflected in the LFP. The results further demonstrate that the competition between the different alternatives cannot solely be mediated by lateral or feedback inhibition, as proposed by a major class of decision models but that feedforward inhibition makes an important contribution.