Tuning perception and decisions to temporal context

Blondé, Philippe; Kristjánsson, Árni; Pascucci, David

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.108008

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Moreover, Experiment 2, where stimulus uncertainty remained constant, provided clear and unequivocal evidence that internal states, independent of stimulus parameters, can significantly influence the strength and even the manifestation of serial dependence. This finding aligns with existing research that explores factors beyond the stimulus in understanding serial dependence, including confidence 54 , attention 20 , memory load 55 , time-on-task 56 , task demand 28,29,31,37,57 , stimulus predictability 58 , as well as internal (e.g., neural) sources of uncertainty 43 .…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…This novel finding clearly demonstrates that internal states of the observer are a key factor in serial dependence, beyond the uncertainty in the stimulus itself. Evidence of modulatory effects of confidence 43 , attention 20 , memory load 44 , time-on-task 45 , task demand 36,[46][47][48][49] , and stimulus predictability 50 , may all reflect the significant contribution of internal states in determining the tendency to integrate or disregard prior stimuli in current decisions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Integrating prior and current stimuli can be advantageous, particularly when anticipating moments of uncertainty in perception. However, integration may not be compulsory, especially when we can rely on our ability to discriminate between changes 58 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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It’s not the spoon that bends: Internal states of the observer determine serial dependence

Ozkirli,

Pascucci

2023

Preprint

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According to traditional views, perception deals with uncertainty using optimal strategies. For instance, when prior stimuli are more reliable than current ones, perception tends to give greater weight to the past, resulting in stronger serial dependence in perceptual decisions. Here, we challenge this view and reveal a systematic deviation from this strategy. We asked participants to reproduce the average orientation of an ensemble of stimuli, with the level of uncertainty manipulated by varying the ensemble variability. Surprisingly, we found that observers exhibited stronger serial dependence when prior stimuli were uncertain rather than reliable. To explain this pattern, we present an extension of the ideal observer model. In this model, uncertain events trigger internal states of the observer, such as expectations about moments of degraded sensory input, thereby modulating the tendency to integrate prior and current stimuli. The striking finding is that manipulation of these internal states through external feedback can lead to clear effects on serial dependence, even when the level of uncertainty in the stimulus remains constant. We propose that serial dependence reflects a 'state-dependent' mechanism that the brain amplifies to cope with moments of expected uncertainty.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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It’s not the spoon that bends: Internal states of the observer determine serial dependence

Ozkirli,

Pascucci

2023

Preprint

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“…Taken together, while previous work strongly supports the idea that pre-stimulus alpha and beta rhythms in sensory areas influence perceptual decision-making, it is not clear whether and how these influences are related to explicit and implicit biases. To address this gap, we conducted two EEG studies that differed in the temporal context of stimulus occurrence 31 . In the first study, participants were informed about the signal probability 4 for a block of stimuli ("stable environment"), in the second study, the stimulus probability was randomly assigned for each trial ("volatile environment").…”

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confidence: 99%

Pre-stimulus beta power mediates explicit and implicit perceptual biases in distinct cortical areas

Forster,

Stephani,

Grund

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Perception is biased by expectations and previous actions. Pre-stimulus brain oscillations are a potential candidate for implementing biases in the brain. In two EEG studies on somatosensory near-threshold detection, we investigated the pre-stimulus neural correlates of an (implicit) previous choice bias and an explicit bias. The explicit bias was introduced by informing participants about stimulus probability on a single-trial level (volatile context) or block-wise (stable context). Behavioural analysis confirmed adjustments in the decision criterion and confidence ratings according to the cued probabilities and previous choice-induced biases. Pre-stimulus beta power with distinct sources in sensory and higher-order cortical areas predicted explicit and implicit biases, respectively, on a single subject level and partially mediated the impact of previous choice and stimulus probability on the detection response. We suggest that pre-stimulus beta oscillations in different brain areas are neural correlates of explicit and implicit biases in somatosensory perception.

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