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Effector-dependent response deterioration by stochastic transformations reveals mixed reference frames for decisions

View ORCID ProfileT. Scott Murdison, Dominic Standage, Philippe Lefèvre, Gunnar Blohm
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/193235
T. Scott Murdison
1Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L3N6
2Canadian Action and Perception Network (CAPnet), Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M3J1P3
3Association for Canadian Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience (CNCN), Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L3N6
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  • ORCID record for T. Scott Murdison
Dominic Standage
1Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L3N6
2Canadian Action and Perception Network (CAPnet), Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M3J1P3
3Association for Canadian Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience (CNCN), Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L3N6
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Philippe Lefèvre
4ICTEAM Institute and Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS), Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium, B-1348
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Gunnar Blohm
1Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L3N6
2Canadian Action and Perception Network (CAPnet), Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M3J1P3
3Association for Canadian Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience (CNCN), Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L3N6
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Abstract

Recent psychophysical and modeling studies have revealed that sensorimotor reference frame transformations (RFTs) add variability to motor output by decreasing the fidelity of sensory signals. How RFT stochasticity affects the sensory input underlying perceptual decisions, if at all, is unknown. To investigate this, we asked participants to perform a simple two-alternative motion direction discrimination task under varying conditions of head roll and/or stimulus rotation while responding either with a saccade or button press, allowing us to attribute behavioral effects to eye-, head- and shoulder-centered reference frames. We observed a rotation-induced, increase in reaction time and decrease in accuracy, indicating a degradation of motion evidence commensurate with a decrease in motion strength. Inter-participant differences in performance were best explained by a continuum of eye-head-shoulder representations of accumulated decision evidence, with eye- and shoulder-centered preferences during saccades and button presses, respectively. We argue that perceptual decision making and stochastic RFTs are inseparable, consistent with electrophysiological recordings in neural areas thought to be encoding sensorimotor signals for perceptual decisions. Furthermore, transformational stochasticity appears to be a generalized phenomenon, applicable throughout the perceptual and motor systems. We show for the first time that, by simply rolling one’s head, perceptual decision making is impaired in a way that is captured by stochastic RFTs.

Significance statement When exploring our environment, we typically maintain upright head orientations, often even despite increased energy expenditure. One possible explanation for this apparently suboptimal behavior might come from the finding that sensorimotor transformations, required for generating geometrically-correct behavior, add signal- dependent variability (stochasticity) to perception and action. Here, we explore the functional interaction of stochastic transformations and perceptual decisions by rolling the head and/or stimulus during a motion direction discrimination task. We find that, during visuomotor rotations, perceptual decisions are significantly impaired in both speed and accuracy in a way that is captured by stochastic transformations. Thus, our findings suggest that keeping one’s head aligned with gravity is in fact ideal for making perceptual judgments about our environment.

Footnotes

  • Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no competing financial interests.

  • Abbreviated title: Head roll impairs perceptual decisions

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted September 24, 2017.
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Effector-dependent response deterioration by stochastic transformations reveals mixed reference frames for decisions
T. Scott Murdison, Dominic Standage, Philippe Lefèvre, Gunnar Blohm
bioRxiv 193235; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/193235
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Effector-dependent response deterioration by stochastic transformations reveals mixed reference frames for decisions
T. Scott Murdison, Dominic Standage, Philippe Lefèvre, Gunnar Blohm
bioRxiv 193235; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/193235

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