Whereas many laboratory-studied decisions involve a highly trained animal identifying an ambiguous stimulus, many naturalistic decisions do not. a much more precipitous coherent jump. This jump in choice-related firing resembled a step function more than it did the output of a standard (ramping) decision-making model, and provided a robust prediction of decision latency in single trials. Together, these results demonstrate that activity related to naturalistic consumption decisions emerges nearly instantaneously in cortical ensembles. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT This paper provides a description of how the brain makes evaluative decisions. The majority of work on the neurobiology of decision making deals with what is it? decisions; out of this work has emerged a model whereby neurons accumulate information about the stimulus in the form of slowly increasing firing AK-7 supplier rates and reach a decision when those firing rates reach a threshold. Here, we study a different kind of more naturalistic decisiona decision to evaluate what shall I do with it? after the identity of a taste in the mouth has been identifiedand show that this decision is not made through the gradual increasing of stimulus-related firing, but rather that this decision appears to be made in a sudden moment of insight. = 11, 2 in initial modeling, 9 with electromyography; 280C320 g at time of surgery) served as subjects in this study. Rats were maintained on a 12 h light/dark schedule and were given access to food (and restricted access to water where specified). All methods complied with the Brandeis University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee guidelines. Surgery Rats were AK-7 supplier anesthetized using an intraperitoneal injection of a ketamine/xylazine/acepromazine mixture (100, 5.2, and 1 mg/kg, respectively), with supplemental intraperitoneal injections administered as needed. The anesthetized rat was placed in a standard stereotaxic device, where its scalp was excised, and holes were bored into its skull for the insertion of 0C80 ground screws and electrodes. Multielectrode bundles (16 nichrome microwires attached to a Microdrive; Katz et al., 2001) were inserted 0.5 mm above GC. Once in place, the assemblies were cemented to the skull, along with two intraoral cannulas (IOCs; Katz et al., 2001) using dental acrylic. Passive taste administration paradigm Three days following surgery, each animal began 2 d of adaptation to handling. Afterward, each animal was placed on a water-restriction regimen (2 h of water/d) for 2 d, acclimatized to the experimental environment for 2 d, and adapted to 40 l water deliveries through the IOCs for another 2 d. Once so acclimated, animals were, once per day, exposed to the experimental taste array [distilled water, four concentrations of NaCl (0.01, 0.1, 0.3, 1.0 m), 0.3 m sucrose, and 0.001 m AK-7 supplier quinine] through a manifold of fine polyimide tubes inserted to 0.5 mm past the end of one IOC (eliminating any chance of mixing) and locked onto the dental acrylic cap. All fluids (including the water rinse, which was delivered to the contralateral IOC) were delivered under slight nitrogen pressure; while delivering each taste from one side may have meant not entirely immediate exposure of all taste buds, the pressure ensured that a brief release of fluid (40 ms, the ejection of taste onto the tongue was total long before any taste-related dynamics appeared in GC responses) resulted in extensive tongue coverage at reliably short latency (Katz et al., 2001), and the use of a single manifold ensured essentially identical presentation of all taste stimuli. Rats received a minimum of 10 blocks of taste deliveries (six deliveries per block). Computer-controlled solenoid valves ejected a pseudorandomly selected taste directly into the mouth of the rat under nitrogen pressure once every 30 s. An H20 Ncam1 rinse was delivered through the contralateral cannula 15 s after each taste delivery. Total fluid delivered was 4.8 ml per 30 min of recording session, after which animals had access to water for 90 min. Assessing preferences/palatability for the full array of taste stimuli A set of rats (= 4) was adapted to handling and placed on a 22 h water restriction protocol, with water provided in the home cage after handling, adaptation, or screening. Testing took place in the Davis MS-160 brief access Lickometer rig.