Serrano-Fernández Luis, Beirán Manuel, Romo Ranulfo, Parga Néstor
Departamento de Física Teórica, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain.
Centro de Investigación Avanzada en Física Fundamental, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024 Dec 10;121(50):e2312831121. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2312831121. Epub 2024 Dec 5.
Perception is influenced by sensory stimulation, prior knowledge, and contextual cues, which collectively contribute to the emergence of perceptual biases. However, the precise neural mechanisms underlying these biases remain poorly understood. This study aims to address this gap by analyzing neural recordings from the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of monkeys performing a vibrotactile frequency discrimination task. Our findings provide empirical evidence supporting the hypothesis that perceptual biases can be reflected in the neural activity of the PFC. We found that the state-space trajectories of PFC neuronal activity encoded a warped representation of the first frequency presented during the task. Remarkably, this distorted representation of the frequency aligned with the predictions of its Bayesian estimator. The identification of these neural correlates expands our understanding of the neural basis of perceptual biases and highlights the involvement of the PFC in shaping perceptual experiences. Similar analyses could be employed in other delayed comparison tasks and in various brain regions to explore where and how neural activity reflects perceptual biases during different stages of the trial.
感知受到感觉刺激、先验知识和情境线索的影响，这些因素共同导致了感知偏差的出现。然而，这些偏差背后的确切神经机制仍知之甚少。本研究旨在通过分析执行振动触觉频率辨别任务的猴子前额叶皮层（PFC）的神经记录来填补这一空白。我们的研究结果提供了实证证据，支持了感知偏差可以在前额叶皮层的神经活动中得到反映这一假设。我们发现，前额叶皮层神经元活动的状态空间轨迹编码了任务期间呈现的第一个频率的扭曲表征。值得注意的是，这种频率的扭曲表征与贝叶斯估计器的预测一致。这些神经关联的识别扩展了我们对感知偏差神经基础的理解，并突出了前额叶皮层在塑造感知体验中的作用。类似的分析可以应用于其他延迟比较任务以及不同的脑区，以探索在试验的不同阶段神经活动在何处以及如何反映感知偏差。
