The interplay between decisions and percepts

Abstract:   
Perceptual decision-making is the process of translating sensory signals into categorical decisions. Computational and neural models typically dissociate between the encoding of sensory information in sensory circuits and the temporal integration of these signals into a decision variable in decision areas.
In my talk, I will question the validity of this separation. I will present neurophysiological and neuroimaging data that show how biases in decision-making propagate to sensory circuits, and how biases in sensory circuits are driving decisions. These data are best captured by conceptualizing perceptual decision-making as a process of probabilistic inference in reciprocally connected sensory and integration circuits. 

References:
 Summerfield, C., and de Lange, F. P. (2014). Expectation in perceptual decision making: neural and computational mechanisms. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 15, 745–756.