Multisensory integration: psychophysics, neurophysiology, and computation

Dora E. Angelaki, Yong Gu, Gregory C. DeAngelis

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

Fundamental observations and principles derived from traditional physiological studies of multisensory integration have been difficult to reconcile with computational and psychophysical studies that share the foundation of probabilistic (Bayesian) inference. We review recent work on multisensory integration, focusing on experiments that bridge single-cell electrophysiology, psychophysics, and computational principles. These studies show that multisensory (visual-vestibular) neurons can account for near-optimal cue integration during the perception of self-motion. Unlike the nonlinear (superadditive) interactions emphasized in some previous studies, visual-vestibular neurons accomplish near-optimal cue integration through subadditive linear summation of their inputs, consistent with recent computational theories. Important issues remain to be resolved, including the observation that variations in cue reliability appear to change the weights that neurons apply to their different sensory inputs.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)452-458
Number of pages7
JournalCurrent Opinion in Neurobiology
Volume19
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2009

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Neuroscience

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