Frontal cortex learns to add evidence across modalities

Abstract

To make accurate perceptual decisions, the brain often combines information across sensory modalities. For instance, localizing objects by integrating their image and sound. However, the cortical substrates underlying this audiovisual integration remain uncertain. Here, we show that mouse frontal cortex combines auditory and visual evidence; that this combination is additive, mirroring behavior; and that it evolves with learning. Scanning optogenetic inactivation demonstrated that inactivating frontal cortex impaired choices based on either sensory modality. Recordings from >10,000 neurons indicated that after task learning, activity in frontal area MOs (secondary motor cortex) encodes an additive combination of visual and auditory signals, consistent with the mices behavioral strategy. An accumulator model applied to these sensory representations reproduced both the observed choices and reaction times. These results indicate that frontal cortex adapts through learning to combine evidence across sensory cortices, providing a signal that is transformed into a binary decision by a downstream accumulator.