Attractors and noise: twin drivers of decisions and multistability.

By admin on Sat, 10/22/2011 - 18:56

Publication Type:

Journal Article

Authors:

Braun, Jochen; Mattia, Maurizio

Source:

NeuroImage, Volume 52, Number 3, p.740–51 (2010)

URL:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811910000637

Keywords:

Animals, Brain, Brain: physiology, Decision Making, Decision Making: physiology, Humans, Models, Neurological, Neurons, Neurons: physiology, perception, Perception: physiology

Abstract:

Perceptual decisions are made not only during goal-directed behavior such as choice tasks, but also occur spontaneously while multistable stimuli are being viewed. In both contexts, the formation of a perceptual decision is best captured by noisy attractor dynamics. Noise-driven attractor transitions can accommodate a wide range of timescales and a hierarchical arrangement with "nested attractors" harbors even more dynamical possibilities. The attractor framework seems particularly promising for understanding higher-level mental states that combine heterogeneous information from a distributed set of brain areas.

Braun, Mattia - 2010 - Attractors and noise twin drivers of decisions and multistability.pdf