Dynamics of the functional link between area MT LFPs and motion detection

The evolution of a visually guided perceptual decision results from multiple neural processes, and recent work suggests that signals with different neural origins are reflected in separate frequency bands of the cortical local field potential (LFP). Spike activity and LFPs in the middle temporal area (MT) have a functional link with the perception of motion stimuli (referred to as neural-behavioral correlation). To cast light on the different neural origins that underlie this functional link, we compared the temporal dynamics of the neural-behavioral correlations of MT spikes and LFPs. Wide-band activity was simultaneously recorded from two locations of MT from monkeys performing a threshold, two-stimuli, motion pulse detection task. Shortly after the motion pulse occurred, we found that high-gamma (100-200 Hz) LFPs had a fast, positive correlation with detection performance that was similar to that of the spike response. Beta (10-30 Hz) LFPs were negatively correlated with detection performance, but their dynamics were much slower, peaked late, and did not depend on stimulus configuration or reaction time. A late change in the correlation of all LFPs across the two recording electrodes suggests that a common input arrived at both MT locations prior to the behavioral response. Our results support a framework in which early high-gamma LFPs likely reflected fast, bottom-up, sensory processing that was causally linked to perception of the motion pulse. In comparison, late-arriving beta and high-gamma LFPs likely reflected slower, top-down, sources of neural-behavioral correlation that originated after the perception of the motion pulse.