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Poster Session C: Friday, August 15, 2:00 – 5:00 pm, de Brug & E‑Hall

A closed-loop model for the coordination of gaze control and decision-making

Demetrio Ferro¹, Tianming Yang², Rubén Moreno-Bote¹; ¹Universitat Pompeu Fabra, ²Chinese Academy of Sciences

Presenter: Tianming Yang

The study of neural circuitry in visually-guided decision-making has generated extensive research and theoretical models of decision formation. However, the role of gaze in enhancing focal sampling and facilitating shifts to sample alternatives remains unclear. We propose a closed-loop model that integrates decision formation with gaze signals to enhance the sampling of visual options. Visual input is first projected to decision populations, implementing competition via mutual inhibition. The output from these populations drives gaze populations, generating visual shifts that feedback into the decision process. We present simulations based on a two-alternative bundle task, showing that gaze and decision outputs align with behavioral performance in terms of decision accuracy and gaze shift occurrences. The model can be extended to study the role of gaze in decision-making both at behavioral and at neural levels, to test predictions such as whether fewer gaze shifts correlate with shorter reaction times, or if gaze shifts coincide with changes in neural value encoding. Additionally, the model can be applied to explore whether gaze and decision align in sequential alternative presentations or when distractors are present.

Topic Area: Reward, Value & Social Decision Making

Extended Abstract: Full Text PDF