Volume 8, Number 3, Article 24, Pages 1-11 doi:10.1167/8.3.24 http://journalofvision.org/8/3/24/ ISSN 1534-7362
Human trimodal perception follows optimal statistical inference
David R. Wozny
Biomedical Engineering IDP, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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Ulrik R. Beierholm
Computation and Neural Systems, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
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Ladan Shams
Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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Abstract

Our nervous system typically processes signals from multiple sensory modalities at any given moment and is therefore posed with two important problems: which of the signals are caused by a common event, and how to combine those signals. We investigated human perception in the presence of auditory, visual, and tactile stimulation in a numerosity judgment task. Observers were presented with stimuli in one, two, or three modalities simultaneously and were asked to report their percepts in each modality. The degree of congruency between the modalities varied across trials. For example, a single flash was paired in some trials with two beeps and two taps. Cross-modal illusions were observed in most conditions in which there was incongruence among the two or three stimuli, revealing robust interactions among the three modalities in all directions. The observers' bimodal and trimodal percepts were remarkably consistent with a Bayes-optimal strategy of combining the evidence in each modality with the prior probability of the events. These findings provide evidence that the combination of sensory information among three modalities follows optimal statistical inference for the entire spectrum of conditions.

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History
Received August 24, 2007; published March 27, 2008
Citation
Wozny, D. R., Beierholm, U. R., & Shams, L. (2008). Human trimodal perception follows optimal statistical inference. Journal of Vision, 8(3):24, 1-11, http://journalofvision.org/8/3/24/, doi:10.1167/8.3.24.
Keywords
multisensory integration, cross modal, Bayesian inference, ideal observer, cross-modal illusion, trimodal perception, causal inference
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