Input-driven behavior: One extreme of the multisensory perceptual continuum

2001 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-233
Author(s):  
Kelvin S. Oie ◽  
John J. Jeka
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Information ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Perceptual Continuum ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Special Case

The propositions that the senses are separate and that the global array may be sufficient for adequate perception are questioned. There is evidence that certain tasks may be primarily “input-driven,” but these are a special case along the behavioral continuum. Many tasks involve sensory information that is ambiguous, and other sources of information may be required for adequate perception.

Studies of Crossmodal Functions with TMS

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lotfi Merabet ◽  
Alvaro Pascual-Leone
Keyword(s):  
Multisensory Processing ◽  
Sensory Deprivation ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Multiple Streams ◽  
Crossmodal Interactions ◽  
Sensory Changes ◽  
The Senses ◽  
The Brain

In the brain, information from all the senses interacts and is integrated in order to create a unified sensory percept. Some percepts appear unimodal, and some, cross modal. Unimodal percepts can be modified by crossmodal interactions given that our brains process multiple streams of sensory information in parallel and promote extensive interactions. TMS can provide valuable insights on the neural substrates associated with multisensory processing in humans. TMS is commonly described as a ‘relatively painless’ method of stimulating the brain noninvasively. However, TMS itself is strong multisensory and this should be considered while interpreting the results. With regard to the crossmodal sensory changes that follow sensory deprivation, these changes can be revealed using a variety of methods including the combination of TMS with neuroimaging.

I. Some Account of a Boy Born Blind and Deaf, Collected From Authentic Sources of Information; with a Few Remarks and Comments

1815 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dugald Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Senses

The Memoir which I am about to submit to the consideration of the Royal Society, relates to the melancholy history of a boy who was born blind and deaf; and who, of consequence, has derived all his knowledge of things external from the senses of Touch, of Taste, and of Smell.

Bird Senses

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Martin
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Information ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Daily Activities ◽  
Power Lines ◽  
Night Time ◽  
The Senses ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Avian Biology ◽  
Very High

Graham Martin takes the reader deep into the world of birds from a new perspective, with a ‘through birds’ eyes’ approach to ornithology that goes beyond the traditional habitat or ecological point of view. There is a lot more to a bird’s world than what it receives through its eyes. This book shows how all of the senses complement one another to provide each species with a unique suite of information that guides their daily activities. The senses of each bird have been fine-tuned by natural selection to meet the challenges of its environment and optimise its behaviour: from spotting a carcase on a hillside, to pecking at minute insects, from catching fish in murky waters, to navigating around the globe. The reader is also introduced to the challenges posed to birds by the obstacles with which humans have cluttered their worlds, from power lines to windowpanes. All of these challenges need explaining from the birds’ sensory perspectives so that effective mitigations can be put in place. The book leads the reader through a wealth of diverse information presented in accessible text, with over 100 colour illustrations and photographs. The result is a highly readable and authoritative account, which will appeal to birdwatchers and other naturalists, as well as researchers in avian biology. The author has researched the senses of birds throughout a 50-year career in ornithology and sensory science. He has always attempted to understand birds from the perspective of how sensory information helps them to carry out different tasks in different environments. He has published papers on more than 60 bird species, from Albatrosses and Penguins, to Spoonbills and Kiwi. His first fascination was with owls and night time, and owls have remained special to him throughout his career. He has collaborated and travelled widely and pondered diverse sensory challenges that birds face in the conduct of different tasks in different habitats, from mudflats and murky waters, to forests, deserts and caves. In recent years he has focused on how understanding bird senses can help to reduce the very high levels of bird deaths that are caused by human artefacts; particularly, wind turbines, power lines, and gill nets.

HOW AND WHY BRAINS CREATE MEANING FROM SENSORY INFORMATION

2004 ◽  
Vol 14 (02) ◽  
pp. 515-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
WALTER J. FREEMAN
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Interpersonal Communication ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Process Information ◽  
Intelligent Machines ◽  
Sample Information ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Construct Meaning

Semantics is the essence of human communication. It concerns the manufacture and use of symbols as representations to exchange meanings. Information technology is faced with the problem of using intelligent machines as intermediaries for interpersonal communication. The problem of designing such semantic machines has been intractable because brains and machines work on very different principles. Machines process information that is fed to them. Brains construct hypotheses and test them by acting and sensing. Brains do not process information because the intake through the senses is infinite. Brains sample information, hold it briefly, construct meaning, and then discard the information. A solution to the problem of communication with machines is to simulate how brains create meaning and express it as information by making a symbol to represent the meaning to another brain in pairwise communication. An understanding of the neurodynamics by which brains create meaning and represent it may enable engineers to build devices with which they can communicate pairwise, as they do now with colleagues.

scholarly journals Bayesian and “Anti-Bayesian” Biases in Sensory Integration for Action and Perception in the Size–Weight Illusion

2010 ◽  
Vol 103 (3) ◽  
pp. 1518-1531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan B. Brayanov ◽  
Maurice A. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Motor System ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Motor Command ◽  
Accurate Estimation ◽  
Proprioceptive Information ◽  
Weight Estimation ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Hand Motion ◽  
Weight Illusion

Which is heavier: a pound of lead or a pound of feathers? This classic trick question belies a simple but surprising truth: when lifted, the pound of lead feels heavier—a phenomenon known as the size–weight illusion. To estimate the weight of an object, our CNS combines two imperfect sources of information: a prior expectation, based on the object's appearance, and direct sensory information from lifting it. Bayes' theorem (or Bayes' law) defines the statistically optimal way to combine multiple information sources for maximally accurate estimation. Here we asked whether the mechanisms for combining these information sources produce statistically optimal weight estimates for both perceptions and actions. We first studied the ability of subjects to hold one hand steady when the other removed an object from it, under conditions in which sensory information about the object's weight sometimes conflicted with prior expectations based on its size. Since the ability to steady the supporting hand depends on the generation of a motor command that accounts for lift timing and object weight, hand motion can be used to gauge biases in weight estimation by the motor system. We found that these motor system weight estimates reflected the integration of prior expectations with real-time proprioceptive information in a Bayesian, statistically optimal fashion that discounted unexpected sensory information. This produces a motor size–weight illusion that consistently biases weight estimates toward prior expectations. In contrast, when subjects compared the weights of two objects, their perceptions defied Bayes' law, exaggerating the value of unexpected sensory information. This produces a perceptual size–weight illusion that biases weight perceptions away from prior expectations. We term this effect “anti-Bayesian” because the bias is opposite that seen in Bayesian integration. Our findings suggest that two fundamentally different strategies for the integration of prior expectations with sensory information coexist in the nervous system for weight estimation.

scholarly journals Emmorey_Nicodemus_OGrady_Lang_of_Perception_ASL_Chapter

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Emmorey
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
American Sign ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Native Signers

We investigated linguistic codability for sensory information (colour, taste, shape, touch, taste, smell, and sound) and the use of iconic labels in American Sign Language (ASL) by deaf native signers. Colour was highly codable in ASL, but few iconic labels were produced. Shape labels were highly iconic (lexical signs and classifier constructions), and touch descriptions relied on iconic classifier constructions that depicted the shape of the tactile source object. Lexical taste-specific signs also exhibited iconic properties (articulated near the mouth), but taste codability was relatively low. No smell-specific lexical signs were elicited (all descriptions were source-based). Descriptions of sound stimuli were elicited through tactile vibrations and were often described using classifier constructions that visually depicted different sound qualities. Results indicated that iconicity of linguistic forms was not constant across the senses; rather, iconicity was most frequently observed for shape, touch, and sound stimuli, and least frequently for colour and smell.

Why There Is a Vestibular Sense, or How Metacognition Individuates the Senses

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Isabelle Garzorz ◽  
Ophelia Deroy
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Information ◽  
Neural Processes ◽  
Multisensory Interactions ◽  
Distinct Sense ◽  
Personal Level ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Conceptual Question ◽  
New Criterion ◽  
Vestibular Organs ◽  
Subjective Level

Abstract Should the vestibular system be counted as a sense? This basic conceptual question remains surprisingly controversial. While it is possible to distinguish specific vestibular organs, it is not clear that this suffices to identify a genuine vestibular sense because of the supposed absence of a distinctive vestibular personal-level manifestation. The vestibular organs instead contribute to more general multisensory representations, whose name still suggest that they have a distinct ‘sensory’ contribution. The vestibular case shows a good example of the challenge of individuating the senses when multisensory interactions are the norm, neurally, representationally and phenomenally. Here, we propose that an additional metacognitive criterion can be used to single out a distinct sense, besides the existence of specific organs and despite the fact that the information coming from these organs is integrated with other sensory information. We argue that it is possible for human perceivers to monitor information coming from distinct organs, despite their integration, as exhibited and measured through metacognitive performance. Based on the vestibular case, we suggest that metacognitive awareness of the information coming from sensory organs constitutes a new criterion to individuate a sense through both physiological and personal criteria. This new way of individuating the senses accommodates both the specialised nature of sensory receptors as well as the intricate multisensory aspect of neural processes and experience, while maintaining the idea that each sense contributes something special to how we monitor the world and ourselves, at the subjective level.

scholarly journals Bayesian Integration in Force Estimation

2004 ◽  
Vol 92 (5) ◽  
pp. 3161-3165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konrad P. Körding ◽  
Shih-pi Ku ◽  
Daniel M. Wolpert
Keyword(s):  
Prior Information ◽  
Prior Experience ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Optimal Estimate ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Force Estimation ◽  
Estimation Task ◽  
Sensory Inputs ◽  
Bayesian Integration ◽  
The World

When we interact with objects in the world, the forces we exert are finely tuned to the dynamics of the situation. As our sensors do not provide perfect knowledge about the environment, a key problem is how to estimate the appropriate forces. Two sources of information can be used to generate such an estimate: sensory inputs about the object and knowledge about previously experienced objects, termed prior information. Bayesian integration defines the way in which these two sources of information should be combined to produce an optimal estimate. To investigate whether subjects use such a strategy in force estimation, we designed a novel sensorimotor estimation task. We controlled the distribution of forces experienced over the course of an experiment thereby defining the prior. We show that subjects integrate sensory information with their prior experience to generate an estimate. Moreover, subjects could learn different prior distributions. These results suggest that the CNS uses Bayesian models when estimating force requirements.

Using Textual Information to Predict In Macroeconomics

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (6) ◽  
pp. 39-58
Author(s):  
Gleb Kurovskiy
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Literature Information ◽  
Textual Information ◽  
Online Systems ◽  
First Time ◽  
Source Of Information ◽  
Special Case

The paper shows how textual information can be used to predict and study cause-effect relationships in macroeconomics. I consider a special case of forecasting - nowcasting on the example of unemployment. The key feature of nowcasting is that the forecast is built for a period that has already passed, but which has not yet come out statistics. As textual information, Internet requests are used. The paper is new in several direction. For the first time in the literature, information from two search engines, Yandex and Google, is used at once for forecasting. Information provided by search engines complements each other and allows performing suitable words’ selection from the bunch of users’ internet-requests. For the first time, the popularity of online systems as sources of information on job availability is taken into account. In Russia, the popularity of the Internet as a source of information on the availability of jobs has more than tripled from 2008 to 2018. If the researcher uses only the dynamics of related internet-requests then the results will show the dynamics of internetservices’ popularity rather than unemployment. Most of the models with internet query words show significant quality improvement in fore(now)casting unemployment. The paper proposes the procedure how to use query data for macroeconomic nowcasting

Learning and Information Use in an Intergroup Context

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin G Mittman ◽  
Keelah Williams ◽  
Vikranth R Bejjanki
Keyword(s):  
Group Membership ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Intergroup Bias ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Task Relevance ◽  
The Face ◽  
Learn Task

When faced with uncertainty, human observers maximize performance by effectively integrating sensory information with learned task-relevant regularities. Does this behavior similarly occur in social, intergroup settings? Here, by providing participants with repeated exposure to a probabilistic decision-making task involving social information, we characterized their ability to learn task-relevant regularities and explored how social information interacted with learning over time. In particular, we examined how a behavior typically attributed to implicit intergroup bias––taking group membership into account when irrelevant or inappropriate––might be influenced by learning mechanisms that promote efficacy in the face of uncertainty. Across two experiments we show that observers learned and utilized task-relevant regularities to inform their decisions and maximize rewards. Notably, social information was utilized only when doing so conferred reward gains. Furthermore, learning about the utility of social information had a long-term influence on observers’ ability to subsequently learn and utilize other sources of information. Taken together, our findings highlight the powerful influence of learning in intergroup contexts: human observers are sensitive to–and quickly learn–the task-relevance of social information, and are able to use this learned knowledge to flexibly reweight available sources of information.

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