Neuronal thresholds and correlations in the peripheral vestibular system during rotation discrimination [article]

Courtney Garcia, Sheng Liu, Jean Laurens, Gregory DeAngelis, David Dickman, Dora Angelaki
2018 bioRxiv   pre-print
Neuronal and behavioral thresholds were measured simultaneously as trained male macaques performed a yaw rotation discrimination task in darkness. When corrected to account for variations in neuronal direction preferences, neurons in the vestibular nuclei and semicircular canal afferents had discrimination thresholds that were only two-fold smaller than behavioral thresholds. There was no significant trial-by-trial correlation between neuronal activity and perceptual decisions, despite the
more » ... nce of significant pair-wise noise correlations. The lack of choice-related activity during rotation discrimination contrasts with the robust correlations observed previously between brainstem neurons and choices during translation perception. These results suggest task-dependent differences in subcortical processing of vestibular signals, as well as how signals related to perceptual decisions may propagate back to early stages of sensory processing.
doi:10.1101/343764 fatcat:zkxwyknnurdf3fyemccdrvkzqq