Neural tuning instantiates prior expectations in the human visual system
Abstract Perception is often modelled as a process of active inference, whereby prior expectations are combined with noisy sensory measurements to estimate the structure of the world. This mathematical framework has proven critical to understanding perception, cognition, motor control, and social in...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2023-09-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41027-w |
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| _version_ | 1849234455374331904 |
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| author | William J. Harrison Paul M. Bays Reuben Rideaux |
| author_facet | William J. Harrison Paul M. Bays Reuben Rideaux |
| author_sort | William J. Harrison |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Perception is often modelled as a process of active inference, whereby prior expectations are combined with noisy sensory measurements to estimate the structure of the world. This mathematical framework has proven critical to understanding perception, cognition, motor control, and social interaction. While theoretical work has shown how priors can be computed from environmental statistics, their neural instantiation could be realised through multiple competing encoding schemes. Using a data-driven approach, here we extract the brain’s representation of visual orientation and compare this with simulations from different sensory coding schemes. We found that the tuning of the human visual system is highly conditional on stimulus-specific variations in a way that is not predicted by previous proposals. We further show that the adopted encoding scheme effectively embeds an environmental prior for natural image statistics within the sensory measurement, providing the functional architecture necessary for optimal inference in the earliest stages of cortical processing. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-85501a62ed4242f6a5fd9ab9bd50e834 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-85501a62ed4242f6a5fd9ab9bd50e8342025-08-20T04:03:07ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232023-09-0114111210.1038/s41467-023-41027-wNeural tuning instantiates prior expectations in the human visual systemWilliam J. Harrison0Paul M. Bays1Reuben Rideaux2School of Psychology, The University of QueenslandDepartment of Psychology, The University of CambridgeQueensland Brain Institute, The University of QueenslandAbstract Perception is often modelled as a process of active inference, whereby prior expectations are combined with noisy sensory measurements to estimate the structure of the world. This mathematical framework has proven critical to understanding perception, cognition, motor control, and social interaction. While theoretical work has shown how priors can be computed from environmental statistics, their neural instantiation could be realised through multiple competing encoding schemes. Using a data-driven approach, here we extract the brain’s representation of visual orientation and compare this with simulations from different sensory coding schemes. We found that the tuning of the human visual system is highly conditional on stimulus-specific variations in a way that is not predicted by previous proposals. We further show that the adopted encoding scheme effectively embeds an environmental prior for natural image statistics within the sensory measurement, providing the functional architecture necessary for optimal inference in the earliest stages of cortical processing.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41027-w |
| spellingShingle | William J. Harrison Paul M. Bays Reuben Rideaux Neural tuning instantiates prior expectations in the human visual system Nature Communications |
| title | Neural tuning instantiates prior expectations in the human visual system |
| title_full | Neural tuning instantiates prior expectations in the human visual system |
| title_fullStr | Neural tuning instantiates prior expectations in the human visual system |
| title_full_unstemmed | Neural tuning instantiates prior expectations in the human visual system |
| title_short | Neural tuning instantiates prior expectations in the human visual system |
| title_sort | neural tuning instantiates prior expectations in the human visual system |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41027-w |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT williamjharrison neuraltuninginstantiatespriorexpectationsinthehumanvisualsystem AT paulmbays neuraltuninginstantiatespriorexpectationsinthehumanvisualsystem AT reubenrideaux neuraltuninginstantiatespriorexpectationsinthehumanvisualsystem |