RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Choice History Biases Subsequent Evidence Accumulation
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 251595
DO 10.1101/251595
A1 Anne E. Urai
A1 Jan Willem de Gee
A1 Tobias H. Donner
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/01/22/251595.abstract
AB Perceptual choices depend not only on the current sensory input, but also on the behavioral context. An important contextual factor is the history of one’s own choices. Neural activity in brain regions involved in decision formation exhibits traces of previous choices. Yet, it remains unknown how such history signals shape the dynamics of later decision formation. Models of perceptual choice construe decision formation as the accumulation of sensory evidence towards decision bounds. In this framework, it is commonly assumed that choice history signals shift the starting point of accumulation towards the bound reflecting the previous choice. We here present results that challenge this idea. We fit a bounded accumulation (‘drift diffusion’) decision model to behavioral data from multiple perceptual choice tasks and sensory modalities, and estimated bias terms that dependent on observers’ previous choices. Individual history biases in behavior were consistently explained by a history-dependent change in the evidence accumulation, rather than in its starting point. Choice history signals thus seem to affect the interpretation of current sensory input, akin to shifting endogenous attention towards (or away from) the previously selected interpretation.