Search Papers | Poster Sessions | All Posters
Poster A34 in Poster Session A - Tuesday, August 6, 2024, 4:15 – 6:15 pm, Johnson Ice Rink
The role of causal inference in audiovisual spatial recalibration
wenshu lou1, Uta Noppeney1; 1Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour
The brain recalibrates the senses to maintain their internal consistency. Crucially, the senses should only be recalibrated in response to inter-sensory conflicts that occur between two signals that come from a common cause. Thus, recalibration relies inherently on causal inference, i.e. determining whether signals come from a common source. To investigate the role of causal inference in recalibration we presented observers with synchronous audiovisual (AV) signals at variable spatial disparities followed by unisensory A or V signals. Observers judged whether AV signals came from common causes and located the unisensory signals. Psychophysics results show that recalibration of the less reliable A cue depends non-linearly on spatial disparity and is enhanced when observers perceive a common cause. These behavioural profiles cannot be accounted for by fixed ratio models of recalibration, but are consistent with Bayesian causal inference (BCI) models in which the spatial estimates are read out using the decisional strategy of model selection.
Keywords: Bayesian Causal inference Audio-visual spatial recalibration multisensory integration