Michael N Shadlen

Columbia University | CU · Department of Neuroscience

Many decisions are expressed as a preference for one item over another. When these items are familiar, it is often assumed that the decision maker assigns a value to each of the items and chooses the item with the highest value. These values may be imperfectly recalled, but are assumed to be stable over the course of an interview or psychological e...

Neurobiological investigations of perceptual decision-making have furnished the first glimpse of a flexible cognitive process at the level of single neurons. Neurons in the parietal and prefrontal cortex are thought to represent the accumulation of noisy evidence, acquired over time, leading to a decision. Neural recordings averaged over many decis...

Confidence in a decision is the belief, prior to feedback, that one's choice is correct. In the brain, many decisions are implemented as a race between competing evidence-accumulation processes. We ask whether the neurons that represent evidence accumulation also carry information about whether the choice is correct (i.e., confidence). Monkeys perf...

Neurobiological investigations of perceptual decision-making have furnished the first glimpse of a flexible cognitive process at the level of single neurons (Shadlen and Newsome, 1996; Shadlen and Kiani, 2013). Neurons in the parietal and prefrontal cortex (Kim and Shadlen, 1999; Romo et al., 2004; Hernández et al., 2002; Ding and Gold, 2012) are t...

Many decisions are expressed as a preference for one item over another. When these items are familiar, it is often assumed that the decision maker assigns a value to each of the items and chooses the item with the highest value. These values may be imperfectly recalled, but are assumed to be stable over the course of an interview or psychological e...

Many decisions are expressed as a preference for one item over another. When these items are familiar, it is often assumed that the decision maker assigns a value to each of the items and chooses the item with the highest value. These values may be imperfectly recalled, but are assumed to be stable over the course of an interview or psychological e...

A central purpose of exploration is to reduce goal-relevant uncertainty. Consequentially, individuals often explore by focusing on areas of uncertainty in the environment. However, people sometimes adopt the opposite strategy, one of avoiding uncertainty. How are the conflicting tendencies to approach and avoid uncertainty reconciled in human explo...

A central purpose of exploration is to reduce goal-relevant uncertainty. Consequentially, individuals often explore by focusing on areas of uncertainty in the environment. However, people sometimes adopt the opposite strategy, one of avoiding uncertainty. How are the conflicting tendencies to approach and avoid uncertainty reconciled in human explo...

Many decisions benefit from the accumulation of evidence obtained sequentially over time. In such circumstances, the decision maker must balance speed against accuracy, and the nature of this tradeoff mediates competing desiderata and costs, especially those associated with the passage of time. A neural mechanism to achieve this balance is to accum...

Many decisions are expressed as a preference for one item over another. When these items are familiar, it is often assumed that the decision maker assigns a value to each of the items and chooses the item with the highest value. These values may be imperfectly recalled, but are assumed to be stable over the course of an interview or psychological e...

Deciding how difficult it is going to be to perform a task allows us to choose between tasks, allocate appropriate resources, and predict future performance. To be useful for planning, difficulty judgments should not require completion of the task. Here, we examine the processes underlying difficulty judgments in a perceptual decision-making task....

High-density microelectrode arrays (MEAs) have opened new possibilities for systems neuroscience in human and non-human animals, but brain tissue motion relative to the array poses a challenge for downstream analyses, particularly in human recordings. We introduce DREDge (Decentralized Registration of Electrophysiology Data), a robust algorithm whi...

Neurobiological investigations of perceptual decision-making have furnished the first glimpse of a flexible cognitive process at the level of single neurons ( Shadlen and Newsome, 1996 ; Shadlen and Kiani, 2013 ). Neurons in the parietal and prefrontal cortex ( Kim and Shadlen, 1999 ; Romo et al., 2004 ; Hernández et al., 2002 ; Ding and Gold,...

Neurobiological investigations of perceptual decision-making have furnished the first glimpse of a flexible cognitive process at the level of single neurons ( Shadlen and Newsome, 1996 ; Shadlen and Kiani, 2013 ). Neurons in the parietal and prefrontal cortex ( Kim and Shadlen, 1999 ; Romo et al., 2004 ; Hernández et al., 2002 ; Ding and Gold,...

Deciding how difficult it is going to be to perform a task allows us to choose between tasks, allocate appropriate resources, and predict future performance. To be useful for planning, difficulty judgments should not require completion of the task. Here we examine the processes underlying difficulty judgments in a perceptual decision making task. P...

To form a perceptual decision the brain must acquire samples of evidence from the environment and incorporate them in computations that mediate choice behavior. While much is known about the neural circuits that process sensory information and those that form decisions, less is known about the mechanisms that establish the functional linkage betwee...

The brain makes decisions by accumulating evidence until there is enough to stop and choose. Neural mechanisms of evidence accumulation are established in association cortex, but the site and mechanism of termination are unknown. Here, we show that the superior colliculus (SC) plays a causal role in terminating decisions, and we provide evidence fo...

Deciding how difficult it is going to be to perform a task allows us to choose between tasks, allocate appropriate resources, and predict future performance. To be useful for planning, difficulty judgments should not require completion of the task. Here we examine the processes underlying difficulty judgments in a perceptual decision making task. P...

Deciding how difficult it is going to be to perform a task allows us to choose between tasks, allocate appropriate resources, and predict future performance. To be useful for planning, difficulty judgments should not require completion of the task. Here we examine the processes underlying difficulty judgments in a perceptual decision making task. P...

Deciding how difficult it is going to be to perform a task allows us to choose between tasks, allocate appropriate resources, and predict future performance. To be useful for planning, difficulty judgments should not require completion of the task. Here we examine the processes underlying difficulty judgments in a perceptual decision making task. P...

High-density, integrated silicon electrodes have begun to transform systems neuroscience, by enabling large-scale neural population recordings with single cell resolution. Existing technologies, however, have provided limited functionality in nonhuman primate species such as macaques, which offer close models of human cognition and behavior. Here,...

Voluntary movement requires communication from cortex to the spinal cord, where a dedicated pool of motor units (MUs) activates each muscle. The canonical description of MU function rests upon two foundational tenets. First, cortex cannot control MUs independently but supplies each pool with a common drive. Second, MUs are recruited in a rigid fash...

Neurons in the lateral intraparietal cortex represent the formation of a decision when it is linked to a specific action, such as an eye movement to a choice target. However, these neurons should be unable to represent a decision that transpires across actions that would disrupt this linkage. We investigated this limitation by simultaneously record...

The brain makes decisions by accumulating evidence until there is enough to stop and choose. Neural mechanisms of evidence accumulation are well established in association cortex, but the site and mechanism of termination is unknown. Here, we elucidate a mechanism for termination by neurons in the primate superior colliculus. We recorded simultaneo...

Neurobiological investigations of perceptual decision-making have furnished the first glimpse of a flexible cognitive process at the level of single neurons (Shadlen & Newsome, 1996; Shadlen & Kiani 2013). Neurons in the parietal and prefrontal cortex (Kim & Shadlen, 1999; Romo, Hernandez & Zainos, 2004; Hernandez, Zainos & Romo, 2002; Ding & Gold,...

Voluntary movement requires communication from cortex to the spinal cord, where a dedicated pool of motor units (MUs) activates each muscle. The canonical description of MU function rests upon two foundational tenets. First, cortex cannot control MUs independently but supplies each pool with a common drive. Second, MUs are recruited in a rigid fash...

The study of perceptual decision-making in monkeys has provided insights into the process by which sensory evidence is integrated toward a decision. When monkeys make decisions with the knowledge of the motor actions the decisions bear upon, the process of evidence integration is instantiated by neurons involved in the selection of said actions. It...

To form a perceptual decision the brain must acquire samples of evidence from the environment and incorporate them in computations that mediate choice behavior. While much is known about the neural circuits that process sensory information and those that form decisions, less is known about the mechanisms that establish the functional linkage betwee...

Perceptual decisions arise through the transformation of samples of evidence into a commitment to a proposition or plan of action. Such transformation is thought to involve cortical circuits capable of computation over time scales associated with working memory, attention, and planning. Neurons in the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) are thought to...

The study of perceptual decision making in monkeys has provided insights into the process by which sensory evidence is integrated towards a decision. When monkeys make decisions with the knowledge of the motor actions the decisions bear upon, the process of evidence integration is instantiated by neurons involved in the selection of said actions. I...

The brain is capable of processing several streams of information that bear on different aspects of the same problem. Here we address the problem of making two decisions about one object, by studying difficult perceptual decisions about the color and motion of a dynamic random dot display. We find that the accuracy of one decision is unaffected by...

The brain is capable of processing several streams of information that bear on different aspects of the same problem. Here we address the problem of making two decisions about one object, by studying difficult perceptual decisions about the color and motion of a dynamic random dot display. We find that the accuracy of one decision is unaffected by...

Significance A fundamental challenge in studying neural activity that evolves over time is understanding what computational capabilities can be supported by the activity and when these dynamics change to support different computational demands. We develop analyses to parcellate neural activity into computationally distinct dynamical regimes. The re...

The sixth edition of the foundational reference on cognitive neuroscience, with entirely new material that covers the latest research, experimental approaches, and measurement methodologies. Each edition of this classic reference has proved to be a benchmark in the developing field of cognitive neuroscience. The sixth edition of The Cognitive Neuro...

Many tasks used to study decision-making encourage subjects to integrate evidence over time. Such tasks are useful to understand how the brain operates on multiple samples of information over prolonged timescales, but only if subjects actually integrate evidence to form their decisions. We explored the behavioral observations that corroborate evide...

Many tasks used to study decision-making encourage subjects to integrate evidence over time. Such tasks are useful to understand how the brain operates on multiple samples of information over prolonged timescales, but only if subjects actually integrate evidence to form their decisions. We explored the behavioral observations that corroborate evide...

Many tasks used to study decision-making encourage subjects to integrate evidence over time. Such tasks are useful to understand how the brain operates on multiple samples of information over prolonged timescales, but only if subjects actually integrate evidence to form their decisions. We explored the behavioral observations that corroborate evide...

Cognitive capacities afford contingent associations between sensory information and behavioral responses. We studied this problem using an olfactory delayed match to sample task whereby a sample odor specifies the association between a subsequent test odor and rewarding action. Multi-neuron recordings revealed representations of the sample and test...

Many tasks used to study decision-making encourage subjects to integrate evidence over time. Such tasks are useful to understand how the brain operates on multiple samples of information over prolonged timescales, but only if subjects actually integrate evidence to form their decisions. We explored the behavioral observations that corroborate evide...

Choosing between two items involves deliberation and comparison of the features of each item and its value. Such decisions take more time when choosing between options of similar value, possibly because these decisions require more evidence, but the mechanisms involved are not clear. We propose that the hippocampus supports deliberation about value...

Our decisions often depend on multiple sensory experiences separated by time delays. The brain can remember these experiences and, simultaneously, estimate the timing between events. To understand the mechanisms underlying working memory and time encoding we analyze neural activity recorded during delays in four experiments on non-human primates. T...

Example of the sequence of events within a short block of trials.

Accurate decisions require knowledge of prior probabilities (e.g., prevalence or base rate), but it is unclear how prior probabilities are learned in the absence of a teacher. We hypothesized that humans could learn base rates from experience making decisions, even without feedback. Participants made difficult decisions about the direction of dynam...

Insights from causal manipulations of brain activity depend on targeting the spatial and temporal scales most relevant for behavior. Using a sensitive perceptual decision task in monkeys, we examined the effects of rapid, reversible inactivation on a spatial scale previously achieved only with electrical microstimulation. Inactivating neurons in ar...

Data and Matlab code for reproducing all panels for Figure 5.

Data and Matlab code for reproducing all panels for Figure 7.

Data and Matlab code for reproducing all panels and figure supplements for Figure 4.

Data and Matlab code for reproducing all panels and figure supplements for Figure 6.

Data and Matlab code for reproducing all panels and figure supplements for Figure 1.

Data and Matlab code for reproducing all panels and figure supplements for Figure 3.

Highlights Sequential sampling models have been widely embraced in contemporary decision neuroscience. The models come in many forms that, despite containing fundamentally different algorithmic elements, can make highly similar predictions for behaviour. Consequently, it can be difficult to definitively adjudicate between alternative models based s...

Neurons in the lateral intraparietal (LIP) area of Macaques exhibit both sensory and oculomotor preparatory responses. During perceptual decision making, the preparatory responses have been shown to track the state of the evolving evidence leading to the decision. The sensory responses are known to reflect categorical properties of visual stimuli,...

Neurons in the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) of Macaques exhibit both sensory and oculomotor preparatory responses. During perceptual decision making, the preparatory responses have been shown to track the state of the evolving evidence leading to the decision. The sensory responses are known to reflect categorical properties of visual stimuli,...

Insights from causal manipulations of brain activity depend on targeting the spatial and temporal scale most relevant for behavior. Using a sensitive perceptual decision task in monkeys, we examined the effects of randomly-interleaved, rapid, reversible inactivation on a spatial scale previously achieved only with electrical microstimulation. Inact...

Deciding between two equally appealing options can take considerable time. This observation has puzzled economists and philosophers, because more deliberation only delays the reward. Here we show that this seemingly irrational behavior is explained by the constructive use of memory. Using functional brain imaging in humans, we show that how long it...

Accurate decisions require knowledge of prior probabilities (e.g., prevalence or base rate) but it is unclear how prior probability is learned in the absence of a teacher. We hypothesized that humans could learn base rates from experience making decisions, even without feedback. Participants made difficult decisions about the direction of dynamic r...

Many decisions arise through an accumulation of evidence to a terminating threshold. The process, termed bounded evidence accumulation (or drift diffusion), provides a unified account of decision speed and accuracy, and it is supported by neurophysiology in human and animal models. In many situations, a decision maker may not communicate a decision...

Many decisions arise through an accumulation of evidence to a terminating threshold. The process, termed bounded evidence accumulation (or drift-diffusion), provides a unified account of decision speed and accuracy, and it is supported by neurophysiology in human and animal models. In many situations, a decision maker may not communicate a decision...

Demanding tasks often require a series of decisions to reach a goal. Recent progress in perceptual decision-making has served to unite decision accuracy, speed, and confidence in a common framework of bounded evidence accumulation, furnishing a platform for the study of such multi-stage decisions. In many instances, the strategy applied to each dec...

Document S1. Figures S1–S5, Tables S1 and S2, and Supplemental Experimental Procedures

Demanding tasks often require a series of decisions to reach a goal. Recent progress in perceptual decision-making has served to unite decision accuracy, speed, and confidence in a common framework of bounded evidence accumulation, furnishing a platform for the study of such multi-stage decisions. In many instances, the strategy applied to each dec...

Many neurons in parietal and prefrontal association cortex undergo gradual changes in firing rate during the formation of some perceptual decisions. These dynamics are often ramp-like increases or decreases depending on the sign and strength of the sensory evidence and are thus hypothesized to represent the accumulation of noisy samples of evidence...

Proportion of correct and waived direction choices as a function of motion strength and volatility condition in the PDW task.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.17688.012

Decision confidence and accuracy in the human confidence task.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.17688.015

Mean and variance of the neuronal response and of a difference variable between pools of neurons with opposite direction preferences.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.17688.005

Accuracy and reaction times from the choice-reaction time task.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.17688.009

ELife digest Many of our decisions are made on the basis of imperfect or ‘noisy’ information. A longstanding goal in neuroscience is to work out how such noise affects three aspects of decision-making: the accuracy (or appropriateness) of a choice, the speed at which the choice is made, and the decision-maker’s confidence that they have chosen corr...