Connectionists: Two papers on neural modeling of decision making

[Vassilis Cutsuridis]

Dear connectionists,
 
my colleagues and I would like to announce the publication of
two of our papers on Neural Modeling of Decision Making in an Antisaccade Task



Paper 1: A NEURAL MODEL OF DECISION MAKING BY THE SUPERIOR 
COLICULLUS IN AN ANTISACCADE TASK
Published by the Neural Networks journal



http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~vcu/papers/CutSmyEvdPer.pdf

Abstract: 
In the antisaccade paradigm subjects are instructed to perform eye movements in the opposite direction
from the location of a visually appearing stimulus while they are fixating on a central stimulus. A recent
study investigated saccade reaction times (SRTs) and percentages of erroneous prosaccades (towards the
peripheral stimulus) of 2006 young men performing visually guided antisaccades. A unimodal distribution
of SRTs (ranging from 80ms to 600ms) as well as an overall 25% of erroneous prosaccade responses was
reported in that large sample. In this article, we present a neural model of saccade initiation based on
competitive integration of planned and reactive saccade decision signals in the intermediate layer of the
superior colliculus. In the model the decision processes grow nonlinearly towards a preset criterion level
and when they cross it, a movement is initiated. The resultant model reproduced the unimodal distributions
of SRTs for correct antisaccades and erroneous prosaccades as well as the variability of SRTs and the
percentage of erroneous prosaccade responses.

 
Paper 2: A BIOPHYSICAL NEURAL ACCUMULATOR MODEL OF DECISION
MAKING IN AN ANTISACCADE TASK
Published by the Neurocomputing journal


http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~vcu/papers/neurocomp2007.pdf


Abstract: 
A biophysical cortico-colicular model of saccade initiation based on competitive 
integration of planned and reactive cortical saccade decision signals in the intermediate layer 
of the superior colliculus is introduced. The variable slopes of the climbing activities of the 
input cortical decision signals are produced from variability in the ionic and synaptic 
conductances of cortical neurons. The model reproduces the unimodal distributions of saccade 
reaction times for correct antisaccades and erroneous prosaccades as well as the variability of 
saccade reaction times and the overall error probabilities in a large sample of 2006 young men 
performing an antisaccade task.

 
Your comments are very welcome.
 
Best regards,
Vassilis

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Vassilis Cutsuridis
Department of Computing Science and Mathematics
University of Stirling
Stirling FK9 4LA 
SCOTLAND

Tel: +44 1786 467422
Fax: +44 1786 464551
Email: vcu at cs.stir.ac.uk
Web: http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~vcu/
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