Evidence for multistability in the visual perception of pigeons

Vetter, G.; Haynes, John­–Dylan; Pfaff, S.

doi:10.1016/s0042-6989(00)00070-5

Cited by 20 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…This can be explained if the unknown alternative interpretation has very little weight, again a "what" issue. Note that other ambiguous stimuli like plaids or apparent motion do not require prior knowledgeVbistable perception of the latter having been observed in pigeons (Vetter, Haynes, & Pfaff, 2000). In our bimodal experiments, cross-modal effects can also be accommodated in the "what" context.…”

Section: Top-down Effectsmentioning

confidence: 58%

Bistability for audiovisual stimuli: Perceptual decision is modality specific

2008

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Ambiguous stimuli can produce spontaneous perceptual alternations in the mind of the observer, even though the stimulus itself remains the same. Common features in the temporal dynamics of bistability have been observed for various types of stimuli, both visual and auditory. This raises the question of whether bistable perception results from stereotyped, local competition between stimulus-specific representations or whether it is triggered by some central, supramodal mechanism. We tested the distributed versus centralized hypothesis by asking observers to simultaneously monitor their bistable perception of ambiguous auditory and visual stimuli. Strong interactions between auditory and visual perceptual switches would indicate a central decision mechanism. We used streaming stimuli in the auditory modality and either plaids or apparent motion stimuli in the visual modality. The use of two different sensory modalities allowed the distinction of contextual interactions due to the similarity between stimuli from interactions linked to perceptual decision itself. The long-term dynamics of bistable perception were identical in unimodal and bimodal presentations for all types of stimuli. Surprisingly, even strong short-term cross-modal interactions, when present, did not alter these dynamics. We conclude that bistability can co-occur independently in different sensory modalities. This observation supports models of distributed competition for perceptual decision and awareness.

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Section: Top-down Effectsmentioning

confidence: 58%

Bistability for audiovisual stimuli: Perceptual decision is modality specific

2008

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“…These changes may be in the membrane potential of neurons [14], patterns of activity [8,20], responses to input signals [15], phasing [37], coupling versus decoupling [12], firing frequency [10], or period of network oscillation [27]. Bistability in neuronal systems has been associated with a variety of functions, such as motor control [10,18,20], visual perception [9,35], memory [4,17], and representation of temporal durations [28]. In view of the wide range of behaviors attributed to neuronal bistability in its different forms, it is important to understand how bistability arises.…”

Section: Bistability In Neuronal Systems Both Experimental and Theormentioning

confidence: 99%

Bistable Oscillations Arising from Synaptic Depression

Bose¹,

Manor²,

Nadim³

2001

SIAM J. Appl. Math.

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Synaptic depression is a common form of short-term plasticity in the central and peripheral nervous systems. We show that in a network of two reciprocally connected neurons a single depressing synapse can produce two distinct oscillatory regimes. These distinct periodic behaviors can be studied by varying the maximal conductance,ḡ inh , of the depressing synapse. For smallḡ inh , the network has a short-period solution controlled by intrinsic cellular properties. For largeḡ inh , the solution has a much longer period and is controlled by properties of the synapse. We show that in an intermediate range ofḡ inh values both stable periodic solutions exist simultaneously. Thus the network can switch oscillatory modes either by changingḡ inh or, for fixedḡ inh , by changing initial conditions.

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“…The dominance times are irregular and rather unpredictable, so that they need to be described by their statistical properties. Since the classic work of Borsellino et al (1972) on gamma distribution of experimental perceptual dominance time series researchers have generally compared their experimental data or theoretical model results with gamma distributions, e.g., experiments by Go´mez et al (1995), Miller (1998), andVetter et al (2000) and models by Ditzinger and Haken (1990), Haken (1994), Nagao et al (2000), Otterpohl et al (2000), Wilson et al (2000), and Laing and Chow (2002). The gamma distribution is related to Poisson processes in which the numbers of changes in nonoverlapping intervals are independent for all intervals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptual dominance time distributions in multistable visual perception

Zhou

Gao

White

et al. 2004

Biological Cybernetics

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Perceptual multistability, alternative perceptions of an unchanging stimulus, gives important clues to neural dynamics. The present study examined 56 perceptual dominance time series for a Necker cube stimulus, for ambiguous motion, and for binocular rivalry. We made histograms of the perceptual dominance times, based on from 307 to 2478 responses per time series (median=612), and compared these histograms to gamma, lognormal and Weibull fitted distributions using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness-of-fit test. In 40 of the 56 tested cases a lognormal distribution provided an acceptable fit to the histogram (in 24 cases it was the only fit). In 16 cases a gamma distribution, and in 11 cases a Weibull distribution, were acceptable but never as the only fit in either case. Any of the three distributions were acceptable in three cases and none provided acceptable fits in 12 cases. Considering only the 16 cases in which a lognormal distribution was rejected ( p<0.05) revealed that minor adjustments to the fourth-moment term of the lognormal characteristic function restored good fits. These findings suggest that random fractal theory might provide insight into the underlying mechanisms of multistable perceptions.

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Evidence for multistability in the visual perception of pigeons

Cited by 20 publications

References 46 publications

Bistability for audiovisual stimuli: Perceptual decision is modality specific

Bistability for audiovisual stimuli: Perceptual decision is modality specific

Bistable Oscillations Arising from Synaptic Depression

Perceptual dominance time distributions in multistable visual perception

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