RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Dynamic Construction of Reduced Representations in the Brain for Perceptual Decision Behavior
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 284158
DO 10.1101/284158
A1 Zhan, Jiayu
A1 Ince, Robin A. A.
A1 van Rijsbergen, Nicola
A1 Schyns, Philippe G.
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/03/18/284158.abstract
AB Current models propose that the brain uses a multi-layered architecture to reduce the high dimensional visual input to lower dimensional representations that support face, object and scene categorizations. However, understanding the brain mechanisms that support such information reduction for behavior remains challenging. We addressed the challenge using a novel information theoretic framework that quantifies the relationships between three key variables: single-trial information randomly sampled from an ambiguous scene, source-space MEG responses and perceptual decision behaviors. In each observer, behavioral analysis revealed the scene features that subtend their decisions. Independent source space analyses revealed the flow of these and other features in cortical activity. We show where (at the junction between occipital cortex and ventral regions), when (up until 170 ms post stimulus) and how (by separating task-relevant and irrelevant features) brain regions reduce the high-dimensional scene to construct task-relevant feature representations in the right fusiform gyrus that support decisions. Our results inform the occipito-temporal pathway mechanisms that reduce and select information to produce behavior.