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Sensory evidence accumulation using optic flow in a naturalistic navigation task

Panos Alefantis, Kaushik J. Lakshminarasimhan, Eric Avila, Jean-Paul Noel, View ORCID ProfileXaq Pitkow, Dora E. Angelaki
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.26.441532
Panos Alefantis
1Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, USA
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Kaushik J. Lakshminarasimhan
2Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
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Eric Avila
1Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, USA
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Jean-Paul Noel
1Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, USA
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Xaq Pitkow
3Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
4Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
5Center for Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
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  • ORCID record for Xaq Pitkow
Dora E. Angelaki
1Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, USA
6Tandon School of Engineering, New York University, New York, USA
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  • For correspondence: da93@nyu.edu
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Abstract

Sensory evidence accumulation is considered a hallmark of decision-making in noisy environments. Integration of sensory inputs has been traditionally studied using passive stimuli, segregating perception from action. Lessons learned from this approach, however, may not generalize to ethological behaviors like navigation, where there is an active interplay between perception and action. We designed a sensory-based sequential decision task in virtual reality in which humans and monkeys navigated to a memorized location by integrating optic flow generated by their own joystick movements. A major challenge in such closed-loop tasks is that subjects’ actions will determine future sensory input, causing ambiguity about whether they rely on sensory input rather than expectations based solely on a learned model of the dynamics. To test whether subjects performed sensory integration, we used three independent experimental manipulations: unpredictable optic flow perturbations, which pushed subjects off their trajectory; gain manipulation of the joystick controller, which changed the consequences of actions; and manipulation of the optic flow density, which changed the reliability of sensory evidence. Our results suggest that both macaques and humans relied heavily on optic flow, thereby demonstrating a critical role for sensory evidence accumulation during naturalistic action-perception closed-loop tasks.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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 30, 2021.
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Sensory evidence accumulation using optic flow in a naturalistic navigation task
Panos Alefantis, Kaushik J. Lakshminarasimhan, Eric Avila, Jean-Paul Noel, Xaq Pitkow, Dora E. Angelaki
bioRxiv 2021.04.26.441532; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.26.441532
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Sensory evidence accumulation using optic flow in a naturalistic navigation task
Panos Alefantis, Kaushik J. Lakshminarasimhan, Eric Avila, Jean-Paul Noel, Xaq Pitkow, Dora E. Angelaki
bioRxiv 2021.04.26.441532; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.26.441532

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