Using the past to estimate sensory uncertainty

Beierholm, U.; Rohe, T.; Ferrari, A.; Stegle, O.; Noppeney, U.

doi:10.7554/elife.54172

Using the past to estimate sensory uncertainty

Beierholm, U.; Rohe, T.; Ferrari, A.; Stegle, O.; Noppeney, U.

Authors

Dr Ulrik Beierholm ulrik.beierholm@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

T. Rohe

A. Ferrari

O. Stegle

U. Noppeney

Abstract

To form a more reliable percept of the environment, the brain needs to estimate its own sensory uncertainty. Current theories of perceptual inference assume that the brain computes sensory uncertainty instantaneously and independently for each stimulus. We evaluated this assumption in four psychophysical experiments, in which human observers localized auditory signals that were presented synchronously with spatially disparate visual signals. Critically, the visual noise changed dynamically over time continuously or with intermittent jumps. Our results show that observers integrate audiovisual inputs weighted by sensory uncertainty estimates that combine information from past and current signals consistent with an optimal Bayesian learner that can be approximated by exponential discounting. Our results challenge leading models of perceptual inference where sensory uncertainty estimates depend only on the current stimulus. They demonstrate that the brain capitalizes on the temporal dynamics of the external world and estimates sensory uncertainty by combining past experiences with new incoming sensory signals.

Citation

Beierholm, U., Rohe, T., Ferrari, A., Stegle, O., & Noppeney, U. (2020). Using the past to estimate sensory uncertainty. eLife, 9, Article e54172. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.54172

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Dec 13, 2020
Online Publication Date	Dec 15, 2020
Publication Date	2020
Deposit Date	Dec 14, 2020
Publicly Available Date	Dec 14, 2020
Journal	eLife
Publisher	eLife Sciences Publications
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	9
Article Number	e54172
DOI	https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.54172