Dissociation of attentional state and behavioral outcome using local field potentials.

Abstract

Successful behavior depends on attentional state and other factors related to decision-making, which may modulate neuronal activity differently. Here, we investigated whether attentional state and behavioral outcome (i.e., whether a target is detected or missed) are distinguishable using the power and phase of local field potential (LFP) recorded bilaterally from area V4 of two male rhesus monkeys performing a cued visual attention task. To link each trial's outcome to pairwise measures of attention that are typically averaged across trials, we used several methods to obtain single-trial estimates of spike count correlation and phase consistency. Surprisingly, while attentional location was best discriminated using gamma and high-gamma power, behavioral outcome was best discriminated by alpha power and steady-state visually evoked potential. Power outperformed absolute phase in attentional/behavioral discriminability, although single-trial gamma phase consistency provided reasonably high attentional discriminability. Our results suggest a dissociation between the neuronal mechanisms that regulate attentional focus and behavioral outcome.Significance statement Targets appearing at the attended location are detected more accurately than those at the unattended location. However, attention may not be the only factor regulating the behavioral outcome. We investigated whether the effects of behavioral outcome and attentional state could be differentiated using the local field potentials recorded from macaque visual area V4. We used various methods to obtain single-trial estimates of trial-wise measures like correlations and phase consistency. Remarkably, we found that while attentional location was most effectively discerned through gamma and high-gamma power, behavioral outcomes were better distinguished by alpha power and steady-state visually evoked potentials. These results suggest distinct mechanisms underlying attention and behavioral outcome, thus emphasizing the roles of additional factors in modulating the behavioral outcome.