The interplay of uncertainty, relevance and learning influences auditory categorization
Abstract Auditory perception requires categorizing sound sequences, such as speech or music, into classes, such as syllables or notes. Auditory categorization depends not only on the acoustic waveform, but also on variability and uncertainty in how the listener perceives the sound – including sensor...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-86856-5 |
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| author | Janaki Sheth Jared S. Collina Eugenio Piasini Konrad P. Kording Yale E. Cohen Maria N. Geffen |
| author_facet | Janaki Sheth Jared S. Collina Eugenio Piasini Konrad P. Kording Yale E. Cohen Maria N. Geffen |
| author_sort | Janaki Sheth |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Auditory perception requires categorizing sound sequences, such as speech or music, into classes, such as syllables or notes. Auditory categorization depends not only on the acoustic waveform, but also on variability and uncertainty in how the listener perceives the sound – including sensory and stimulus uncertainty, the listener’s estimated relevance of the particular sound to the task, and their ability to learn the past statistics of the acoustic environment. Whereas these factors have been studied in isolation, whether and how these factors interact to shape categorization remains unknown. Here, we measured human participants’ performance on a multi-tone categorization task and modeled each participant’s behavior using a Bayesian framework. Task-relevant tones contributed more to category choice than task-irrelevant tones, confirming that participants combined information about sensory features with task relevance. Conversely, participants’ poor estimates of task-relevant tones or high-sensory uncertainty adversely impacted category choice. Learning the statistics of sound category over both short and long timescales also affected decisions, biasing the decisions toward the overrepresented category. The magnitude of this effect correlated inversely with participants’ relevance estimates. Our results demonstrate that individual participants idiosyncratically weigh sensory uncertainty, task relevance, and statistics over both short and long timescales, providing a novel understanding of and a computational framework for how sensory decisions are made under several simultaneous behavioral demands. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5263de53a6d34c5b841ec9f4727c3a77 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj-art-5263de53a6d34c5b841ec9f4727c3a772025-02-02T12:16:55ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-01-0115113210.1038/s41598-025-86856-5The interplay of uncertainty, relevance and learning influences auditory categorizationJanaki Sheth0Jared S. Collina1Eugenio Piasini2Konrad P. Kording3Yale E. Cohen4Maria N. Geffen5Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of PennsylvaniaNeuroscience Graduate Group, University of PennsylvaniaDepartment of Neuroscience, International School for Advanced StudiesDepartment of Neuroscience, University of PennsylvaniaDepartment of Otorhinolaryngology, University of PennsylvaniaDepartment of Otorhinolaryngology, University of PennsylvaniaAbstract Auditory perception requires categorizing sound sequences, such as speech or music, into classes, such as syllables or notes. Auditory categorization depends not only on the acoustic waveform, but also on variability and uncertainty in how the listener perceives the sound – including sensory and stimulus uncertainty, the listener’s estimated relevance of the particular sound to the task, and their ability to learn the past statistics of the acoustic environment. Whereas these factors have been studied in isolation, whether and how these factors interact to shape categorization remains unknown. Here, we measured human participants’ performance on a multi-tone categorization task and modeled each participant’s behavior using a Bayesian framework. Task-relevant tones contributed more to category choice than task-irrelevant tones, confirming that participants combined information about sensory features with task relevance. Conversely, participants’ poor estimates of task-relevant tones or high-sensory uncertainty adversely impacted category choice. Learning the statistics of sound category over both short and long timescales also affected decisions, biasing the decisions toward the overrepresented category. The magnitude of this effect correlated inversely with participants’ relevance estimates. Our results demonstrate that individual participants idiosyncratically weigh sensory uncertainty, task relevance, and statistics over both short and long timescales, providing a novel understanding of and a computational framework for how sensory decisions are made under several simultaneous behavioral demands.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-86856-5 |
| spellingShingle | Janaki Sheth Jared S. Collina Eugenio Piasini Konrad P. Kording Yale E. Cohen Maria N. Geffen The interplay of uncertainty, relevance and learning influences auditory categorization Scientific Reports |
| title | The interplay of uncertainty, relevance and learning influences auditory categorization |
| title_full | The interplay of uncertainty, relevance and learning influences auditory categorization |
| title_fullStr | The interplay of uncertainty, relevance and learning influences auditory categorization |
| title_full_unstemmed | The interplay of uncertainty, relevance and learning influences auditory categorization |
| title_short | The interplay of uncertainty, relevance and learning influences auditory categorization |
| title_sort | interplay of uncertainty relevance and learning influences auditory categorization |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-86856-5 |
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