Feature expectation heightens visual sensitivity during fine orientation discrimination

Cheadle, Samuel; Egner, Tobias; Wyart, Valentin; Wu, Claire; Summerfield, Christopher

doi:10.1167/15.14.14

Cited by 31 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 33 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Observers were more sensitive to expected information at more tilted orientations (lateral shift in blue sensitivity curve), where information is most diagnostic for choices (based on ref. [9]). In all panels, black bars indicated significant differences in energy sensitivty between conditions.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This finding was explained by a computational simulation in which FBE cues facilitate detection sensitivity via an early gain control mechanism, whereas FBA acts to reduce noise in the decision process. In another study [9], observers discriminated the tilt (clockwise vs. counterclockwise) of a noisy grating, and PRC was used to assess the influence of sensory signals on choices, under FBA and FBE cues. Here, FBE cues increased sensitivity to more diagnostic, “off-channel” features, whereas FBA had a more general multiplicative influence on decision sensitivity (Fig.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Feature-Based Attention and Feature-Based Expectation

Summerfield

Egner

2016

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Feature-Based Attention and Feature-Based Expectation

Summerfield

Egner

2016

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Prior knowledge about the probabilistic structure of the world plays a critical role in resolving this ambiguity (2). Thus, expectations about statistical regularities can improve the efficiency of decision making (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16). For example, we learn from past experience that certain objects are more likely to be seen in particular contexts.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Preserved capacity for learning statistical regularities and directing selective attention after hippocampal lesions

Rungratsameetaweemana

Squire

Serences

2019

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Prior knowledge about the probabilistic structure of visual environments is necessary to resolve ambiguous information about objects in the world. Expectations based on stimulus regularities exert a powerful influence on human perception and decision making by improving the efficiency of information processing. Another type of prior knowledge, termed top-down attention, can also improve perceptual performance by facilitating the selective processing of relevant over irrelevant information. While much is known about attention, the mechanisms that support expectations about statistical regularities are not well-understood. The hippocampus has been implicated as a key structure involved in or perhaps necessary for the learning of statistical regularities, consistent with its role in various kinds of learning and memory. Here, we tested this hypothesis using a motion discrimination task in which we manipulated the most likely direction of motion, the degree of attention afforded to the relevant stimulus, and the amount of available sensory evidence. We tested memory-impaired patients with bilateral damage to the hippocampus and compared their performance with controls. Despite a modest slowing in response initiation across all task conditions, patients performed similar to controls. Like controls, patients exhibited a tendency to respond faster and more accurately when the motion direction was more probable, the stimulus was better attended, and more sensory evidence was available. Together, these findings demonstrate a robust, hippocampus-independent capacity for learning statistical regularities in the sensory environment in order to improve information processing.

show abstract

“…Further, a correct prediction about the nature of an upcoming stimulus (e.g. the orientation of a Gabor) improves its discrimination 9 and sharpens its neural representation 10 . The brain can thus use predictive information in the environment to build expectations of stimulus frequency or conditional probabilities to modify subsequent sensory information processing and perception.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic interactions between top-down expectations and conscious awareness

Meijs

Slagter

Lange

et al. 2017

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It is well known that top-down expectations affect perceptual processes. Yet, remarkably little is known about the relationship between expectations and conscious awareness We address three crucial questions that are outstanding: 1) How do predictions affect the likelihood of conscious stimulus perception?; 2) Does the brain register violations of predictions nonconsciously?; and 3) Do predictions need to be conscious to influence perceptual decisions? We performed three experiments in which we manipulated stimulus predictability within the attentional blink paradigm, while combining visual psychophysics with electrophysiological recordings. We found that valid stimulus expectations increase the likelihood of conscious access of stimuli. Furthermore, our findings suggest a clear dissociation in the interaction between expectations and consciousness: conscious awareness seems crucial for the implementation of top-down predictions, but not for the bottom-up generation of stimulus-evoked prediction errors. These results constrain and update influential theories about the role of consciousness in the predictive brain.. CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was . http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/151019 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online Jun. 16, 2017; 3 A rapidly growing body of work indicates that sensory processing is strongly influenced by the expectations that we have about likely states of the world. Such expectations are shaped by the immediate environment or context in which we are operating, but also by learning, past experience and our genetic makeup [1][2][3] .Expectations are typically thought to originate from higher-level brain regions, such as the prefrontal cortex, which may guide information processing in lower-level sensory regions via top-down (descending) projections 4,5 . In this framework, what we consciously see is proposed to be strongly influenced by the brain's expectations about, or its best guess of, the outside world 6,7 . Initial studies support a tight relationship between expectations and conscious perception. For example, it has been shown that objects that are unexpected in a particular visual scene (e.g. a hammer in the kitchen) are detected more slowly than expected objects (e.g. a knife in the kitchen) 8 . Further, a correct prediction about the nature of an upcoming stimulus (e.g. the orientation of a Gabor) improves its discrimination 9 and sharpens its neural representation 10. The brain can thus use predictive information in the environment to build expectations of stimulus frequency or conditional probabilities to modify subsequent sensory information processing and perception. These ideas have been formalized in several theoretical models, such as predictive coding and sequential sampling models 3,11,12 . Although these frameworks are attractive in their simplicity and are rapidly growing in scientific stature, how exactly predictions shape conscious ...

show abstract

Feature expectation heightens visual sensitivity during fine orientation discrimination

Cited by 31 publications

References 33 publications

Feature-Based Attention and Feature-Based Expectation

Feature-Based Attention and Feature-Based Expectation

Preserved capacity for learning statistical regularities and directing selective attention after hippocampal lesions

Dynamic interactions between top-down expectations and conscious awareness

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About