Abstract
The study of perceptual decision-making offers insight into how the brain uses complex, sometimes ambiguous information to guide actions. Understanding the underlying processes and their neural bases requires that one pair recordings and manipulations of neural activity with rigorous psychophysics. Though this research has been traditionally performed in primates, it seems increasingly promising to pursue it at least partly in mice and rats. However, rigorous psychophysical methods are not yet as developed for these rodents as they are for primates. Here we give a brief overview of the sensory capabilities of rodents and of their cortical areas devoted to sensation and decision. We then review methods of psychophysics, focusing on the technical issues that arise in their implementation in rodents. These methods represent a rich set of challenges and opportunities.
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Acknowledgements
We thank A. Kepecs, A. Zador and L. Busse for comments. M.C.'s research is supported by the European Research Council, by the Wellcome Trust, and by the GlaxoSmithKline/Fight for Sight Chair in Visual Neuroscience. A.K.C.'s research is supported by the US National Eye Institute (grants EY022979 and EY019072), the US National Science Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the John Merck Fund, the Chapman Foundation and the Marie Robertson Memorial Fund of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
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Carandini, M., Churchland, A. Probing perceptual decisions in rodents. Nat Neurosci 16, 824–831 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3410
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3410
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