Seeing a Bayesian ghost: Sensorimotor activation leads to an illusory social perception

Friedrich, Elisabeth V. C.; Zillekens, Imme Christina; Biel, Anna Lena; O'Leary, Dariusz; Seegenschmiedt, Eva Victoria; Singer, Johannes; Schilbach, Leonhard; Sauseng, Paul

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.104068

Cited by 10 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…One explanation is that both conditions were perceived in terms of social biological motion as they included point-light displays showing moving agents (Zillekens et al, 2019). In another recent publication from our lab, we have demonstrated higher sensorimotor activation in time segment (1) in false alarm compared to correct rejection and hit trials within the communicative condition (Friedrich et al, 2022). We had interpreted this sensorimotor activation as a neural signature of generating predictions that outweigh sensory information presented later in the time segment (3) and thus leading to the illusion of seeing agent B (i.e., to seeing a Bayesian ghost).…”

Section: Exploratory Coherence Analyses Based On a Priori Source-leve...mentioning

confidence: 77%

“…In this case, the communicative gesture might have still led to better detectability of agent B (i.e., more hits) but at the same also led to seeing the Bayesian ghost (i.e., more false alarms). The Bayesian ghost is defined by a false alarm in the communicative noise trial (Friedrich et al, 2022). Based on agent A's communicative gesture, participants expected agent B to be present in the cluster of noise dots and thus had an illusion of agent B although it was absent.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted August 16, 2022. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.16.504090 doi: bioRxiv preprint Taken together, in the time segment (3) before the response, signal compared to noise trials led to increased activation in regions relevant for visual processing, social perception and cognition rather than in the predicted motor areas. It seems that activation of the sensorimotor cortex is specific to perceiving a biological motion (or illusion) after a communicative gesture (Friedrich et al, 2022). In the present study, we contrasted correct signal (i.e., hit) versus correct noise (i.e., correct rejection) trials collapsed over the communicative and individual condition.…”

Section: Exploratory Coherence Analyses Based On a Priori Source-leve...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The study was approved by the ethics committee of the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and is in accordance with the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki. Some data from a sub-sample of the recorded participants has been published in relation to a research question not addressed in this manuscript (Friedrich et al, 2022). The experimental design was controlled using the Psychophysics Toolbox (Version 3.0.14;Brainard 1997;Kleiner, Brainard, and Pelli 2007;Pelli 1997) Participants were facing a computer monitor (refresh rate = 60 Hz, resolution of 1280…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Oscillatory Brain Activity during the Observation of Actions and Interactions between Point-light Agents

Friedrich

Zillekens²,

Biel

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Predicting actions from nonverbal cues and using them to optimize one's response behavior (i.e., interpersonal predictive coding) is essential in everyday life social interaction. 39 participants watched two agents depicted by moving point-light stimuli while an electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. One well-recognizable agent performed either a communicative or an individual action. The second agent was either masked by a cloud of noise dots, or absent and replaced by noise dots, which participants had to differentiate. EEG amplitude and coherence analyses for theta, alpha and beta frequency bands revealed a dynamic pattern unfolding over time: Watching communicative actions was associated with enhanced coupling within medial anterior regions involved in social and mentalizing processes and with dorsolateral prefrontal activation indicating a higher deployment of cognitive resources. Trying to detect the masked agent without having seen communicative cues was related to enhanced coupling in posterior regions for social perception and visual processing. Observing an expected outcome was associated with increased motor system activation. Finally, when the masked agent was detected correctly, activation in posterior areas for visual processing and social cognition was increased. Taken together, our results demonstrate that it is crucial to consider the temporal dynamics of social interactions and of their neural correlates to better understand interpersonal predictive coding.

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Section: Exploratory Coherence Analyses Based On a Priori Source-leve...mentioning

confidence: 77%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Exploratory Coherence Analyses Based On a Priori Source-leve...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Oscillatory Brain Activity during the Observation of Actions and Interactions between Point-light Agents

Friedrich

Zillekens²,

Biel

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The Sense of Someone Appearing There: A Philosophical Investigation into Other Minds, Deceased People, and Animated Persona

Morioka

2023

Hum Stud

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We sometimes feel the presence of a person-like something on a non-biological object, such as a memento from a deceased family member or a well-engineered, human-shaped robot. This feeling—the sense of someone appearing there—has not been extensively investigated by philosophers. In this paper, I employ examples from previous studies, my own experiences, and thought experiments to conduct a philosophical analysis of the mechanism of the emergence of this person-like something by using the concept of an animated persona. This animation process works not only in cases of deceased people and non-biological objects but also in cases of a living, conscious human being. This suggests that the appearance of the other mind on a human body is not necessarily a reflection of that human’s inner self-consciousness but can be considered a personhood that appears, animated by various surrounding factors. I also propose the concept of “the supremacy of surface-ness over behind-ness”. Finally, I categorize the appearance of an animated persona on a human body or an object into eight patterns and compare their characteristics.

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Observers predict actions from facial emotional expressions during real-time social interactions

Kroczek,

Lingnau,

Schwind

et al. 2024

Behavioural Brain Research

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Seeing a Bayesian ghost: Sensorimotor activation leads to an illusory social perception

Cited by 10 publications

References 63 publications

Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Oscillatory Brain Activity during the Observation of Actions and Interactions between Point-light Agents

Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Oscillatory Brain Activity during the Observation of Actions and Interactions between Point-light Agents

The Sense of Someone Appearing There: A Philosophical Investigation into Other Minds, Deceased People, and Animated Persona

Observers predict actions from facial emotional expressions during real-time social interactions

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