Priors and visual perception

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24300146
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Fusional basic brain science
• Research Institution: The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research
• Principal Investigator: GARDNDER JUSTIN 独立行政法人理化学研究所, 脳科学総合研究センター, チームリーダー (70565134)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 事前知識 / Priors / fMRI / Attention / Vision / Perception

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Often our visual sense gives us only ambiguous or uncertain information about the world. A powerful set of theories suggest that we should use prior knowledge to disambiguate such sensory evidence. This Kakenhi was geared towards understanding the representations of such prior information on visual processing. We chose to study this framework of Bayesian inference in the visual system for which there is considerable knowledge about the basic neural circuitry that represents sensory responses. Using functional imaging, computational analyses and behavioral measurement we found a representation of visual motion that incorporates a prior for slow movement. We have also examined how prior cues indicating the relevance of particular locations can enhance behavioral performance by efficient selection of sensory signals. Finally, we have uncovered evidence for a behavioral switching heuristics in which subjects switch between priors and evidence rather than integrate the two.

Free Research Field

神経科学