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The Journal of Neuroscience, October 31, 2007, 27(44):11912-11924; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3522-07.2007

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Evidence Accumulation and the Moment of Recognition: Dissociating Perceptual Recognition Processes Using fMRI

Elisabeth J. Ploran,^1 * Steven M. Nelson,^3 * Katerina Velanova,² David I. Donaldson,⁷ Steven E. Petersen,^3,4,5,6 and Mark E. Wheeler¹

¹Department of Psychology, Learning Research and Development Center, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, ²Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, Departments of ³Neurology, ⁴Psychology, ⁵Radiology, and ⁶Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, and ⁷Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA Stirling, United Kingdom

Correspondence should be addressed to Mark E. Wheeler, University of Pittsburgh, 608 Learning Research and Development Center, 3939 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Email: wheelerm{at}pitt.edu

Decision making can be conceptualized as the culmination of an integrative process in which evidence supporting different response options accumulates gradually over time. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate brain activity leading up to and during decisions about perceptual object identity. Pictures were revealed gradually and subjects signaled the time of recognition (T_R) with a button press. We examined the time course of T_R-dependent activity to determine how brain regions tracked the timing of recognition. In several occipital regions, activity increased primarily as stimulus information increased, suggesting a role in lower-level sensory processing. In inferior temporal, frontal, and parietal regions, a gradual buildup in activity peaking in correspondence with T_R suggested that these regions participated in the accumulation of evidence supporting object identity. In medial frontal cortex, anterior insula/frontal operculum, and thalamus, activity remained near baseline until T_R, suggesting a relation to the moment of recognition or the decision itself. The findings dissociate neural processes that function in concert during perceptual recognition decisions.

Key words: perceptual recognition; decision making; cognition; fMRI; visual; evidence accumulation

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Received April 7, 2007; revised Sept. 6, 2007; accepted Sept. 8, 2007.

Correspondence should be addressed to Mark E. Wheeler, University of Pittsburgh, 608 Learning Research and Development Center, 3939 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Email: wheelerm{at}pitt.edu

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