Cross-modal auditory priors drive the perception of bistable visual stimuli with reliable differences between individuals.

ABSTRACT: It is a widely held assumption that the brain performs perceptual inference by combining sensory information with prior expectations, weighted by their uncertainty. A distinction can be made between higher- and lower-level priors, which can be manipulated with associative learning and sensory priming, respectively. Here, we simultaneously investigate priming and the differential effect of auditory vs. visual associative cues on visual perception, and we also examine the reliability of individual differences. Healthy individuals (N = 29) performed a perceptual inference task twice with a one-week delay. They reported the perceived direction of motion of dot pairs, which were preceded by a probabilistic visuo-acoustic cue. In 30% of the trials, motion direction was ambiguous, and in half of

SUBMITTER: Palffy Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8379237 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature