Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

The latency of a visual evoked potential tracks the onset of decision making

View ORCID ProfileMichael D. Nunez, Aishwarya Gosai, Joachim Vandekerckhove, Ramesh Srinivasan
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/275727
Michael D. Nunez
1Department of Cognitive Sciences University of California Irvine CA USA
2Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Michael D. Nunez
  • For correspondence: mdnunez1@uci.edu
Aishwarya Gosai
1Department of Cognitive Sciences University of California Irvine CA USA
3Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Joachim Vandekerckhove
1Department of Cognitive Sciences University of California Irvine CA USA
4Department of Statistics, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
5Institute of Mathematical Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ramesh Srinivasan
1Department of Cognitive Sciences University of California Irvine CA USA
2Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
5Institute of Mathematical Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Encoding of a sensory stimulus is believed to be the first step in perceptual decision making. Previous research has shown that electrical signals recorded from the human brain track evidence accumulation during perceptual decision making (Gold and Shadlen, 2007; O’Connell et al., 2012; Philiastides et al., 2014). In this study we directly tested the hypothesis that the latency of the N200 recorded by EEG (a negative peak occurring between 150 and 275 ms after stimulus presentation in human participants) reflects the visual encoding time (VET) required for completion of figure-ground segregation before evidence accumulation. We show that N200 latencies vary across individuals, are modulated by external visual noise, and increase response time by x milliseconds when they increase by x milliseconds, reflecting a linear regression slope of 1. Simulations of cognitive decision-making theory show that variation in human response times not related to evidence accumulation (including VET) are tracked by the fastest response times. A relationship with a slope of 1 between N200 latencies and VET was found by fitting a linear model between trial-averaged N200 latencies and the 10th percentiles of response times. A slope of 1 was also found between single-trial N200 latencies and response times. Fitting a novel neuro-cognitive model of decision-making also yielded a slope of 1 between N200 latency and non-decision time in multiple visual noise conditions, indicating that N200 latencies track the completion of visual encoding and the onset of evidence accumulation. The N200 waveforms were localized to the cortical surface at distributed temporal and extrastriate locations, consistent with a distributed network engaged in figure-ground segregation of the target stimulus.

Significance Statement Encoding of a sensory stimulus is believed to be the first step in perceptual decision making. In this study, we report evidence that visual evoked potentials (EPs) around 200 ms after stimulus presentation track the time of visual figure-ground segregation before the onset of evidence accumulation during decision making. These EP latencies vary across individuals, are modulated by external visual noise, and increase response time by x milliseconds when they increase by x milliseconds. Hierarchical Bayesian model-fitting was also used to relate these EPs to a specific cognitive parameter that tracks time related to visual encoding in a decision-making model of response time. This work adds to the growing literature that suggests that EEG signals can track the component cognitive processes of decision making.

Acknowledgements

MDN, JV, and RS were supported by NSF grant #1658303. AG was supported by the Summer Undergraduate Research Program at the University of California, Irvine. Siyi Deng and Sam Thorpe are thanked for their contributions to the FEM solutions and anatomical fMRI image generation. Gabriel Weindel is thanked for his early comments and reanalysis of the public data paired with this paper. We would also like to thank Paul L. Nunez for his comments on the spline Laplacian-localization technique used in this paper. Two anonymous reviewers are appreciated for their comments that lead to the improvement of this work. This study extends initial work presented in Chapter 4 of the PhD dissertation by Nunez (2017).

Author Contributions

MDN, JV, and RS designed research. AG and MDN performed research. MDN analyzed data. MDN, AG, JV, and RS wrote the paper.

Footnotes

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

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-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted September 05, 2018.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
The latency of a visual evoked potential tracks the onset of decision making
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
The latency of a visual evoked potential tracks the onset of decision making
Michael D. Nunez, Aishwarya Gosai, Joachim Vandekerckhove, Ramesh Srinivasan
bioRxiv 275727; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/275727
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
The latency of a visual evoked potential tracks the onset of decision making
Michael D. Nunez, Aishwarya Gosai, Joachim Vandekerckhove, Ramesh Srinivasan
bioRxiv 275727; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/275727

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Neuroscience
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4232)
  • Biochemistry (9128)
  • Bioengineering (6774)
  • Bioinformatics (23989)
  • Biophysics (12117)
  • Cancer Biology (9523)
  • Cell Biology (13772)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7627)
  • Ecology (11686)
  • Epidemiology (2066)
  • Evolutionary Biology (15504)
  • Genetics (10638)
  • Genomics (14322)
  • Immunology (9477)
  • Microbiology (22832)
  • Molecular Biology (9089)
  • Neuroscience (48957)
  • Paleontology (355)
  • Pathology (1480)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2568)
  • Physiology (3844)
  • Plant Biology (8327)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1471)
  • Synthetic Biology (2296)
  • Systems Biology (6186)
  • Zoology (1300)