Time-adaptive modulation of evidence evaluation in rat posterior parietal cortex

A crucial component of successful decision making is determining the optimal timescale over which to evaluate evidence. For example, when detecting transient changes in the environment, it is best to focus evaluation on the current evidence as opposed to older evidence. However, it is unclear how this adjustment in timescale is achieved in the brain in terms of how the neurons that process evidence adjust their dynamics. To address this question, we used Neuropixel probes to record spiking activity from neurons in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) of rats performing a free-response auditory change detection task in which subjects evaluate sensory evidence over short timescales to determine when a change occurs in a noisy sensory stream. Consistent with longer timescale temporal integration tasks, we found that PPC neurons modulated their activity by the strength of evidence leading to decisions, were selective for the rats’ choices, and had opposing populations of neurons that were positively versus negatively modulated by evidence. However, in contrast to temporal integration tasks, responses of neurons to individual pulses of evidence were transient, such that the effect of the evidence on activity tapered off over a timescale corresponding to the subject’s behavioral timescale of evidence evaluation. Intriguingly, PPC also exhibited “gain changes” in the influence of evidence as a function of decision time that were consistent with changes in behavioral urgency. In addition, reversible inactivation revealed an important role for PPC in this auditory change detection, such that PPC inactivation altered choice behavior and the timescale over which rats evaluated evidence. Together, our results suggest important contributions of PPC to free-response decisions that involve adjusting timescales of evidence evaluation.