RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Context-Dependent Attractor Dynamics in Visual Cortex JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 120725 DO 10.1101/120725 A1 Satohiro Tajima A1 Kowa Koida A1 Chihiro I. Tajima A1 Hideyuki Suzuki A1 Kazuyuki Aihara A1 Hidehiko Komatsu YR 2017 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/03/26/120725.abstract AB The capacity for flexible sensory-action association in animals has been related to context-dependent attractor dynamics outside the sensory cortices. Here we report a line of evidence that flexibly modulated attractor dynamics during task switching are already present in the higher visual cortex in macaque monkeys. With a nonlinear decoding approach, we can extract the particular aspect of the neural population response that reflects the task-induced emergence of bistable attractor dynamics in a neural population, which could be obscured by standard unsupervised dimensionality reductions such as PCA. The dynamical modulation selectively increases the information relevant to task demands, indicating that such modulation is beneficial for perceptual decisions. A computational model that features nonlinear recurrent interaction among neurons with a task-dependent background input replicates the key properties observed in the experimental data. These results suggest that the context-dependent attractor dynamics involving the sensory cortex can underlie flexible perceptual abilities.