scholarly journals A Hierarchical Attractor Network Model of perceptual versus intentional decision updates

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Löffler ◽  
Anastasia Sylaidi ◽  
Zafeirios Fountas ◽  
Patrick Haggard
Keyword(s):  
Network Model ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Attractor Network ◽  
Movement Trajectories ◽  
Internal Action ◽  
Perceptual Evidence ◽  
Dot Motion ◽  
Action Tendencies ◽  
Random Dot Motion

AbstractChanges of Mind are a striking example of our ability to flexibly reverse decisions and change our own actions. Previous studies largely focused on Changes of Mind in decisions about perceptual information. Here we report reversals of decisions that require integrating multiple classes of information: 1) Perceptual evidence, 2) higher-order, voluntary intentions, and 3) motor costs. In an adapted version of the random-dot motion task, participants moved to a target that matched both the external (exogenous) evidence about dot-motion direction and a preceding internally-generated (endogenous) intention about which colour to paint the dots. Movement trajectories revealed whether and when participants changed their mind about the dot-motion direction, or additionally changed their mind about which colour to choose. Our results show that decision reversals about colour intentions are less frequent in participants with stronger intentions (Exp. 1) and when motor costs of intention pursuit are lower (Exp. 2). We further show that these findings can be explained by a hierarchical, multimodal Attractor Network Model that continuously integrates higher-order voluntary intentions with perceptual evidence and motor costs. Our model thus provides a unifying framework in which voluntary actions emerge from a dynamic combination of internal action tendencies and external environmental factors, each of which can be subject to Change of Mind.

scholarly journals Two Ways to Change Your Mind: Effects of Intentional Strength and Motor Costs on Changes of Intention

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Löffler ◽  
Anastasia Sylaidi ◽  
Zafeirios Fountas ◽  
Patrick Haggard
Keyword(s):  
High Performance ◽  
Dynamic Decision Making ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Movement Trajectories ◽  
Human Ability ◽  
Internal Action ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Sensory Evidence ◽  
Dot Motion ◽  
Initial Choice

AbstractChanges of Mind are a striking example of the human ability to flexibly reverse decisions after commitment to an initial choice, and to change actions according to circumstances. Previous studies of Changes of Mind largely focused on perceptual choices. Here we investigate reversals of voluntary, endogenous action decisions. In a novel version of the random-dot motion task, participants moved to a target that matched both the perceived dot-motion direction and an internally-generated intention (which colour target to move to). Movement trajectories revealed whether and when participants 1) perceived a change in dot-motion direction, or additionally 2) changed the colour that they chose to move to (‘Change of Intention’). Changes of Intention were less frequent in participants with strong colour intentions, as indicated by high performance costs in trials where perceptual information conflicted with the endogenous intention (Exp. 1). Additionally, Changes of Intention were more frequent when motor costs of intention pursuit were high (Exp. 2). These findings were simulated using an attractor network model that continuously integrates voluntary intentions, sensory evidence, and motor costs. This argues in favour of a unifying framework for dynamic decision-making processes, in which voluntary actions emerge from a dynamic combination of internal action tendencies and external environmental factors.

scholarly journals Perceptual insensitivity to higher-order statistical moments of coherent random dot motion

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael L. Waskom ◽  
Janeen Asfour ◽  
Roozbeh Kiani
Keyword(s):  
Higher Order ◽  
Statistical Moments ◽  
Dot Motion ◽  
Random Dot Motion

scholarly journals Detaching from influence in decision-making: objective and subjective freedom of choice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwydion Williams ◽  
Patrick Haggard ◽  
Lucie Charles
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Freedom Of Choice ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Dot Motion ◽  
Trial Participants ◽  
Random Dot Motion

How much can people resist influence in choice? In this study, we explored participants’ abilities to voluntarily detach from irrelevant information to make free choices. Participants saw random-dot-motion stimuli and a colour-cue indicating whether their response should be congruent or incongruent with the direction of dot-motion. Importantly, in a third condition, the colour-cue instructed participants to detach from dot-motion direction and to freely choose how to respond. After each trial, participants rated how much they felt their decision was influenced by the stimulus. Our results showed that participants conflated opposition and independence: responses incongruent with the stimulus were systematically associated with a greater sense of freedom and detachment, whether these responses were instructed or made freely. Further, this effect seemed stronger in participants who tended to oppose the stimulus more frequently. Taken together, these results suggest that feelings of freedom rely on opposing suggestion and breaking from our habits.

scholarly journals The reverse motion illusion in random dot motion displays and implications for understanding development

2022 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Manning ◽  
Kimberly Meier ◽  
Deborah Giaschi
Keyword(s):  
Visual Development ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Reverse Motion ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Adult Participants ◽  
Dot Motion ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Perceived Motion ◽  
Collaborative Efforts ◽  
Random Dot Motion

Across two independent developmental labs, we have been puzzled by the observation that a small proportion of our child and adult participants consistently report perceiving motion in the direction opposite to that presented in random dot motion displays, sometimes even when the motion is at 100% coherence. In this review, we first draw together existing reports of misperceptions of motion direction in random dot displays across observers in a small percentage of trials, before reporting evidence of consistent reverse motion perception in a minority of observers, including previously unreported observations from our own studies of visual development. We consider possible explanations for this reverse motion illusion, including motion induction, motion energy, correspondence noise and spatial undersampling. However, more work is required to understand the individual differences relating to this percept. We suggest that errors in perceived motion direction are likely to be more widespread than can be currently gleaned from the literature and explain why systematic study is needed, especially in children. Finally, we list some remaining open questions and call for collaborative efforts to document this phenomenon and stimulate future investigation.

scholarly journals The basis of area and dot number effects in random dot motion perception

1982 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 1253-1259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Curtis L. Baker ◽  
Oliver J. Braddick
Keyword(s):  
Motion Perception ◽  
Dot Motion ◽  
Random Dot Motion

scholarly journals Sensitivity of Neurons in the Middle Temporal Area of Marmoset Monkeys to Random Dot Motion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tristan A. Chaplin ◽  
Benjamin J. Allitt ◽  
Maureen A. Hagan ◽  
Nicholas S. Price ◽  
Ramesh Rajan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Primate Species ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Temporal Area ◽  
Middle Temporal ◽  
Mt Neurons ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Middle Temporal Area ◽  
Dot Motion ◽  
Marmoset Monkeys ◽  
Random Dot Motion

AbstractNeurons in the Middle Temporal area (MT) of the primate cerebral cortex respond to moving visual stimuli. The sensitivity of MT neurons to motion signals can be characterized by using random-dot stimuli, in which the strength of the motion signal is manipulated by adding different levels of noise (elements that move in random directions). In macaques, this has allowed the calculation of “neurometric” thresholds. We characterized the responses of MT neurons in sufentanil/nitrous oxide anesthetized marmoset monkeys, a species which has attracted considerable recent interest as an animal model for vision research. We found that MT neurons show a wide range of neurometric thresholds, and that the responses of the most sensitive neurons could account for the behavioral performance of macaques and humans. We also investigated factors that contributed to the wide range of observed thresholds. The difference in firing rate between responses to motion in the preferred and null directions was the most effective predictor of neurometric threshold, whereas the direction tuning bandwidth had no correlation with the threshold. We also showed that it is possible to obtain reliable estimates of neurometric thresholds using stimuli that were not highly optimized for each neuron, as is often necessary when recording from large populations of neurons with different receptive field concurrently, as was the case in this study. These results demonstrate that marmoset MT shows an essential physiological similarity to macaque MT, and suggest that its neurons are capable of representing motion signals that allow for comparable motion-in-noise judgments.New and NoteworthyWe report the activity of neurons in marmoset MT in response to random-dot motion stimuli of varying coherence. The information carried by individual MT neurons was comparable to that of the macaque, and that the maximum firing rates were a strong predictor of sensitivity. Our study provides key information regarding the neural basis of motion perception in the marmoset, a small primate species that is becoming increasingly popular as an experimental model.

scholarly journals Perceptual insensitivity to higher-order statistical moments of coherent random dot motion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael L. Waskom ◽  
Janeen Asfour ◽  
Roozbeh Kiani
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Probability Distributions ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Statistical Moments ◽  
Coherent Motion ◽  
It Use ◽  
Higher Order Moments ◽  
Dynamic Stimuli ◽  
Dot Motion ◽  
The Individual

ABSTRACTWhen the visual system analyses distributed patterns of sensory inputs, what features of those distributions does it use? It has been previously demonstrated that higher-order statistical moments of luminance distributions influence perception of static surfaces and textures. Here, we tested whether the brain also represents higher-order moments of dynamic stimuli. We constructed random dot kinematograms where dots moved according to probability distributions that selectively differed in terms of their mean, variance, skewness, or kurtosis. When viewing these stimuli, human observers were sensitive to the mean direction of coherent motion and to the variance of the individual dot displacement angles, but they were insensitive to skewness and kurtosis. Observer behavior accorded with a model of directional motion energy, suggesting that information about higher-order moments is discarded early in the visual processing hierarchy. These results demonstrate that use of higher-order moments is not a general property of visual perception.

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