Seeing a Bayesian ghost: Sensorimotor activation leads to an illusory social perception.

ABSTRACT: Based on our prior experiences we form social expectations and anticipate another person's response. Under certain conditions, these expectations can be so strong that they lead to illusory perception of another person who is actually not there (i.e., seeing a Bayesian ghost). We used EEG to investigate the neural correlates of such illusory social perception. Our results showed that activation of the premotor cortex predicted the occurrence of the Bayesian ghost, whereas its actual appearance was later accompanied by activation in sensorimotor and adjacent parietal regions. These findings confirm that our perception of others is so strongly affected by prior expectations, in such a way they can prompt illusory social perceptions associated with activity change in brain regions relevant fo

SUBMITTER: Friedrich EVC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8958323 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature