Auditory Decisions in the Supplementary Motor Area

Abstract

In human speech and communication across various species, recognizing sounds is fundamental for the selection of appropriate behaviors. But how does the brain decide which action to perform based on sounds? We explored whether the premotor supplementary motor area (SMA), responsible for linking sensory information to motor programs, also accounts for auditory-driven decision making. To this end, we trained two rhesus monkeys to discriminate between numerous naturalistic sounds and words learned as target (T) or non-target (nT) categories. We demonstrated that the neural population is organized differently during the auditory and the movement periods of the task, implying that it is performing different computations in each period. We found that SMA neurons perform acoustic-decision-related computations that transition from auditory to movement representations in this task. Our results suggest that the SMA integrates sensory information while listening to auditory stimuli in order to form categorical signals that drive behavior.

Neuronal Correlates of the Perceptual Invariance of Words and Other Sounds in the Supplementary Motor Area of Macaques

“…21 Also, as a premotor cortex, the SMA participates in voluntary movement control, [22][23][24] working memory, and decision making. [25][26][27][28] In humans, it is also involved in acoustic imagery. 20 Recently, Vergara and collaborators showed that the SMA is crucial for auditory decisions 1 .…”