Adaptive and Selective Time Averaging of Auditory Scenes.

ABSTRACT: To overcome variability, estimate scene characteristics, and compress sensory input, perceptual systems pool data into statistical summaries. Despite growing evidence for statistical representations in perception, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. One example of such representations occurs in auditory scenes, where background texture appears to be represented with time-averaged sound statistics. We probed the averaging mechanism using "texture steps"-textures containing subtle shifts in stimulus statistics. Although generally imperceptible, steps occurring in the previous several seconds biased texture judgments, indicative of a multi-second averaging window. Listeners seemed unable to willfully extend or restrict this window but showed signatures of longer integration ti

SUBMITTER: McWalter R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5940576 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature