Extended Data Figure 5: Population responses along individual task-related axes.

a–e, Responses for monkey A. The average population responses on correct trials are re-plotted from Fig. 2, together with responses on a subset of incorrect trials (red curves). Here the responses are represented explicitly as a function of time (horizontal axis) and projected separately (vertical axes) onto the axes of choice (b), motion (c), colour (d) and context (e). As in Fig. 2, correct trials are sorted on the basis of context (motion: top sub-panels; colour: bottom sub-panels; see key in a), on the direction of the sensory evidence (filled, towards choice 1; dashed, towards choice 2) and strength of the sensory evidence (black to light-grey, strongest to weakest motion; blue to cyan, strongest to weakest colour), and based on choice (thick, choice 1; thin, choice 2). Incorrect trials (red curves) are shown for the lowest motion coherence (during motion context, top left in b–e) and the lowest colour coherence (during colour context, bottom right in b–e). Vertical scale bars correspond to 1 unit of normalized response, and the horizontal lines are drawn at the same level in all four sub-panels within b–e. a, Key to the condition averages shown in each panel of b–e, as well as to the corresponding state-space panels in Fig. 2. b, Projections of the population response onto the choice axis. Responses along the choice axis represent integration of evidence in both contexts. c, Projection onto the motion axis. Responses along the motion axis represent the momentary motion evidence during both motion (top left) and colour contexts (bottom left) (curves are parametrically ordered based on motion strength in both contexts), but not the colour evidence (right, curves are not ordered based on colour strength). d, Projection onto the colour axis. Responses along the colour axis represent the momentary colour evidence in the motion (top right) and colour contexts (bottom right) (ordered), but not the motion evidence (left, not ordered). e, Projection onto the context axis. Responses in the motion context (top, all curves above the horizontal line) and colour context (bottom, all curves below the horizontal line) are separated along the context axis, which maintains a representation of context. f–i, Responses for monkey F, same conventions as in b–e. The responses in f–i are also shown as trajectories in Extended Data Fig. 7g–l. The drift along the choice axis in Extended Data Fig. 7g–l is reflected in the overall positive slopes in f.