Drift-Diffusion Modeling of a Perceptual Decision-Making Task

Abstract

Decision-making has long been a subject of particular interest to neuroscientists. This work begins by describing two distinct types of decisions: perceptual and value-based. The accumulator model, a framework that has proven itself relevant and successful in describing the decision-making process, is then covered. This is expanded upon in a discussion of the drift-diffusion implementation of accumulator models. The two-alternative forced task experimental paradigm is then introduced before describing a perceptual experiment in which rats were prompted to choose between click trains according to their size. A specific drift-diffusion model used to fit the data from this experiment is outlined, including the process of adding a new parameter to the model and testing it. This work concludes by introducing a data-interface created for the rat auditory click experiment