Comment on "single-trial spike trains in parietal cortex reveal discrete steps during decision-making"

Abstract

Latimer et al. (Reports, 10 July 2015, p. 184) claim that during perceptual decision formation, parietal neurons undergo one-time, discrete steps in firing rate instead of gradual changes that represent the accumulation of evidence. However, that conclusion rests on unsubstantiated assumptions about the time window of evidence accumulation, and their stepping model cannot explain existing data as effectively as evidenceaccumulation models.