Human reaction times during sensory-motor tasks vary consider(cid:173) ably. To begin to understand how this variability arises, we exam(cid:173) ined neuronal populational response time variability at early versus late visual processing stages. The conventional view is that pre(cid:173) cise temporal information is gradually lost as information is passed through a layered network of mean-rate "units." We tested in hu(cid:173) mans whether neuronal populations at different processing stages behave like mean-rate "units". A blind source separation algorithm was applied to MEG signals from sensory-motor integration tasks.

Human reaction times during sensory-motor tasks vary considerably. To begin to understand how this variability arises, we examined neuronal populational response time variability at early versus late visual processing stages. The conventional view is that precise temporal information is gradually lost as information is passed through a layered network of mean-rate "units." We tested in humans whether neuronal populations at different processing stages behave like mean-rate "units". A blind source separation algorithm was applied to MEG signals from sensory-motor integration tasks. Response time latency and variability for multiple visual sources were estimated by detecting single-trial stimulus-locked events for each source.

Human reaction times during sensory-motor tasks vary considerably. To begin to understand how this variability arises, we examined neuronal populational response time variability at early versus late visual processing stages. The conventional view is that precise temporal information is gradually lost as information is passed through a layered network of mean-rate "units." We tested in humans whether neuronal populations at different processing stages behave like mean-rate "units". A blind source separation algorithm was applied to MEG signals from sensory-motor integration tasks. Response time latency and variability for multiple visual sources were estimated by detecting single-trial stimulus-locked events for each source.

Human reaction times during sensory-motor tasks vary considerably.