Dendritic Integration of Sensory Evidence in Perceptual Decision-Making.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 29706545.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1016/j.cell.2018.03.075 and PMC identifier 5947940.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Perceptual decisions require the accumulation of sensory information to a response criterion. Most accounts of how the brain performs this process of temporal integration have focused on evolving patterns of spiking activity. We report that subthreshold changes in membrane voltage can represent accumulating evidence before a choice. αβ core Kenyon cells (αβ<sub>c</sub> KCs) in the mushroom bodies of fruit flies integrate odor-evoked synaptic inputs to action potential threshold at timescales matching the speed of olfactory discrimination. The forkhead box P transcription factor (FoxP) sets neuronal integration and behavioral decision times by controlling the abundance of the voltage-gated potassium channel Shal (K<sub>V</sub>4) in αβ<sub>c</sub> KC dendrites. αβ<sub>c</sub> KCs thus tailor, through a particular constellation of biophysical properties, the generic process of synaptic integration to the demands of sequential sampling.
Medical subject headings
- Dendrites
- Drosophila
- Drosophila Proteins