Millisecond-scale differences in neural activity in auditory cortex can drive decisions

Abstract

Neurons in the auditory cortex can lock with millisecond precision to the fine timing of acoustic stimuli, but it is not known whether this precise spike timing can be used to guide decisions. We used chronically implanted microelectrode pairs to stimulate neurons in the rat auditory cortex directly. Here we demonstrate that rats can exploit differences in the timing of cortical activity as short as three milliseconds to guide decisions.