scholarly journals Hands Ahead in Mind and Motion: Active Inference in Peripersonal Hand Space

Vision ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Johannes Lohmann ◽  
Anna Belardinelli ◽  
Martin V. Butz
Keyword(s):  
Movement Control ◽  
Virtual Object ◽  
Active Inference ◽  
Behavior Control ◽  
Motor Mapping ◽  
Anticipatory Behavior ◽  
Predictive Processes ◽  
Object Interactions ◽  
Crossmodal Congruency Effect ◽  
Crossmodal Congruency

According to theories of anticipatory behavior control, actions are initiated by predicting their sensory outcomes. From the perspective of event-predictive cognition and active inference, predictive processes activate currently desired events and event boundaries, as well as the expected sensorimotor mappings necessary to realize them, dependent on the involved predicted uncertainties before actual motor control unfolds. Accordingly, we asked whether peripersonal hand space is remapped in an uncertainty anticipating manner while grasping and placing bottles in a virtual reality (VR) setup. To investigate, we combined the crossmodal congruency paradigm with virtual object interactions in two experiments. As expected, an anticipatory crossmodal congruency effect (aCCE) at the future finger position on the bottle was detected. Moreover, a manipulation of the visuo-motor mapping of the participants’ virtual hand while approaching the bottle selectively reduced the aCCE at movement onset. Our results support theories of event-predictive, anticipatory behavior control and active inference, showing that expected uncertainties in movement control indeed influence anticipatory stimulus processing.

scholarly journals Crossmodal congruency effect scores decrease with repeat test exposure

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6976 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Blustein ◽  
Satinder Gill ◽  
Adam Wilson ◽  
Jon Sensinger
Keyword(s):  
Exposure Time ◽  
Congruency Effect ◽  
Learning Effect ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Clinical Settings ◽  
Exposure Sessions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Crossmodal Congruency Effect ◽  
Crossmodal Congruency

The incorporation of feedback into a person’s body schema is well established. The crossmodal congruency task (CCT) is used to objectively quantify incorporation without being susceptible to experimenter biases. This visual-tactile interference task is used to calculate the crossmodal congruency effect (CCE) score as a difference in response time between incongruent and congruent trials. Here we show that this metric is susceptible to a learning effect that causes attenuation of the CCE score due to repeated task exposure sessions. We demonstrate that this learning effect is persistent, even after a 6 month hiatus in testing. Two mitigation strategies are proposed: 1. Only use CCE scores that are taken after learning has stabilized, or 2. Use a modified CCT protocol that decreases the task exposure time. We show that the modified and shortened CCT protocol, which may be required to meet time or logistical constraints in laboratory or clinical settings, reduced the impact of the learning effect on CCT results. Importantly, the CCE scores from the modified protocol were not significantly more variable than results obtained with the original protocol. This study highlights the importance of considering exposure time to the CCT when designing experiments and suggests two mitigation strategies to improve the utility of this psychophysical assessment.

scholarly journals Crossmodal congruency effect scores decrease with repeat test exposure

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satinder Gill ◽  
Daniel Blustein ◽  
Adam Wilson ◽  
Jon Sensinger
Keyword(s):  
Exposure Time ◽  
Congruency Effect ◽  
Learning Effect ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Clinical Settings ◽  
Exposure Sessions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Crossmodal Congruency Effect ◽  
Crossmodal Congruency

AbstractThe incorporation of feedback into a person’s body schema is well established. The crossmodal congruency effect (CCE) task is used to objectively quantify incorporation without being susceptible to experimenter biases. This visual-tactile interference task is used to calculate the CCE score as a difference in response time for incongruent and congruent trials. Here we show that this metric is susceptible to a learning effect that causes attenuation of the CCE score due to repeated task exposure sessions. We demonstrate that this learning effect is persistent, even after a 6 month hiatus in testing. Two mitigation strategies are proposed: 1. Only use CCE scores that are taken after learning has stabilized, or 2. Use a modified CCE protocol that decreases the task exposure time. We show that the modified and shortened CCE protocol, which may be required to meet time or logistical constraints in laboratory or clinical settings, reduced the impact of the learning effect on CCE results. Importantly, the CCE scores from the modified protocol were not significantly more variable than results obtained with the original protocol. This study highlights the importance of considering exposure time to the CCE task when designing experiments and suggests two mitigation strategies to improve the utility of this psychophysical assessment.

scholarly journals Prediction and information integration determine subtle anticipatory fixation biases

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Notaro ◽  
Wieske van Zoest ◽  
David Melcher ◽  
Uri Hasson
Keyword(s):  
Information Integration ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Temporal Scales ◽  
Target Presentation ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Environmental Statistics ◽  
Anticipatory Behavior ◽  
Predictive Processes ◽  
Target Locations ◽  
Fixation Bias

ABSTRACTA core question underlying neurobiological and computational models of behavior is how individuals learn environmental statistics and use them for making predictions. Treatment of this issue largely relies on reactive paradigms, where inferences about predictive processes are derived by modeling responses to stimuli that vary in likelihood. Here we deployed a novel proactive oculomotor metric to determine how input statistics impact anticipatory behavior, decoupled from stimulus-response. We implemented transition constraints between target locations, and quantified a subtle fixation bias (FB) discernible while individuals fixated a screen center awaiting target presentation. We show that FB is informative with respect the input statistics, reflects learning at different temporal scales, predicts saccade latencies on a trial level, and can be linked to fundamental oculomotor metrics. We also present an extension of this approach to a more complex paradigm. Our work demonstrates how learning impacts strictly predictive processes and presents a novel direction for studying learning and prediction.

Expectation of tactile events is enough to induce crossmodal congruency effect (CCE)

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 146-147
Author(s):  
Pasquale Cardellicchio ◽  
Federica Iezzi ◽  
Marcello Costantini ◽  
Francesca Ferri ◽  
Ettore Ambrosini
Keyword(s):  
Congruency Effect ◽  
Crossmodal Congruency Effect ◽  
Crossmodal Congruency

scholarly journals Active inference unifies intentional and conflict-resolution imperatives of motor control

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonella Maselli ◽  
Pablo Lanillos ◽  
Giovanni Pezzulo
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Active Inference ◽  
Rubber Hand ◽  
Classical Studies ◽  
Online Corrections ◽  
Motor Awareness ◽  
Shed Light

The field of motor control has long focused on the achievement of external goals through action (e.g., reaching and grasping objects). However, recent studies in conditions of multisensory conflict, such as when a subject experiences the rubber hand illusion or embodies an avatar in virtual reality, reveal the presence of unconscious movements that are not goal-directed, but rather aim at resolving multisensory conflicts; for example, by aligning the position of a person’s arm with that of an embodied avatar. This second, conflict-resolution imperative of movement control did not emerge in classical studies of motor adaptation and online corrections, which did not allow movements to reduce the conflicts; and has been largely ignored so far in formal theories. Here, we propose a model of movement control grounded in the theory of active inference that integrates intentional and conflict-resolution imperatives. We present three simulations showing that the active inference model is able to characterize movements guided by the intention to achieve an external goal, by the necessity to resolve multisensory conflict, or both. Furthermore, our simulations reveal a fundamental difference between the (active) inference underlying intentional and conflict-resolution imperatives, respectively, by showing that it is driven by two different (model and sensory) kinds of prediction errors. Finally, our simulations show that when movement is only guided by conflict-resolution, the model incorrectly infers that is velocity is zero, as if it was not moving. This result suggests a novel speculative explanation for the fact that people are unaware of their subtle compensatory movements to avoid multisensory conflict. Furthermore, it can potentially help shed light on deficits of motor awareness that arise in psychopathological conditions.

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