Abstract
Often multisensory information is integrated in a statistically optimal fashion where each sensory source is weighted according to its precision. This integration scheme is statistically optimal because it theoretically results in unbiased perceptual estimates with the highest precision possible. There is a current lack of consensus about how the nervous system processes multiple sensory cues to elapsed time. In order to shed light upon this, we adopt a computational approach to pinpoint the integration strategy underlying duration estimation of audio/visual stimuli. One of the assumptions of our computational approach is that the multisensory signals redundantly specify the same stimulus property. Our results clearly show that despite claims to the contrary, perceived duration is the result of an optimal weighting process, similar to that adopted for estimates of space. That is, participants weight the audio and visual information to arrive at the most precise, single duration estimate possible. The work also disentangles how different integration strategies – i.e. considering the time of onset/offset of signals - might alter the final estimate. As such we provide the first concrete evidence of an optimal integration strategy in human duration estimates.
Highlights
Imagine you are attending a cellist concert
The present study addresses the question of how redundant auditory and visual cues specifying interval duration are integrated into a unique audiovisual estimate
We show, for the first time that duration estimation follows an optimal integration rule and we suggest that previously reported suboptimal behaviour may be the result of different mechanisms underlying the problem of obtaining duration from empty intervals, not the strategy used by the nervous system per se
Summary
As the cellist drags the bow across the strings you try to guess how long that resonant note lasted by using two sources of sensory information: the duration of the sound and that of the bow movement. From these two partially conflicting sources of information (i.e. because of residual arm movements and room acoustics), your brain is attempting to obtain one unique estimate of duration. Most information about the external world provides multiple sensory signals to your nervous system These signals can be used independently to estimate properties of the environment – as such they are redundant. The present study addresses the question of how redundant auditory and visual cues specifying interval duration are integrated into a unique audiovisual estimate
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