Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - A general rule for sensory cue summation
T2 - evidence from photographic, musical, phonetic and cross-modal stimuli
AU - To, M. P. S.
AU - Baddeley, R. J.
AU - Troscianko, T.
AU - Tolhurst, D. J.
PY - 2011/5/7
Y1 - 2011/5/7
N2 - The Euclidean and MAX metrics have been widely used to model cue summation psychophysically and computationally. Both rules happen to be special cases of a more general Minkowski summation rule (Cue(1)(m) + Cue(2)(m))(1/m), where m = 2 and infinity, respectively. In vision research, Minkowski summation with power m = 3-4 has been shown to be a superior model of how subthreshold components sum to give an overall detection threshold. Recently, we have previously reported that Minkowski summation with power m = 2.84 accurately models summation of suprathreshold visual cues in photographs. In four suprathreshold discrimination experiments, we confirm the previous findings with new visual stimuli and extend the applicability of this rule to cue combination in auditory stimuli (musical sequences and phonetic utterances, where m = 2.95 and 2.54, respectively) and cross-modal stimuli (m = 2.56). In all cases, Minkowski summation with power m = 2.5-3 outperforms the Euclidean and MAX operator models. We propose that this reflects the summation of neuronal responses that are not entirely independent but which show some correlation in their magnitudes. Our findings are consistent with electrophysiological research that demonstrates signal correlations (r = 0.1-0.2) between sensory neurons when these are presented with natural stimuli.
AB - The Euclidean and MAX metrics have been widely used to model cue summation psychophysically and computationally. Both rules happen to be special cases of a more general Minkowski summation rule (Cue(1)(m) + Cue(2)(m))(1/m), where m = 2 and infinity, respectively. In vision research, Minkowski summation with power m = 3-4 has been shown to be a superior model of how subthreshold components sum to give an overall detection threshold. Recently, we have previously reported that Minkowski summation with power m = 2.84 accurately models summation of suprathreshold visual cues in photographs. In four suprathreshold discrimination experiments, we confirm the previous findings with new visual stimuli and extend the applicability of this rule to cue combination in auditory stimuli (musical sequences and phonetic utterances, where m = 2.95 and 2.54, respectively) and cross-modal stimuli (m = 2.56). In all cases, Minkowski summation with power m = 2.5-3 outperforms the Euclidean and MAX operator models. We propose that this reflects the summation of neuronal responses that are not entirely independent but which show some correlation in their magnitudes. Our findings are consistent with electrophysiological research that demonstrates signal correlations (r = 0.1-0.2) between sensory neurons when these are presented with natural stimuli.
KW - music
KW - cross-modal
KW - PRIMARY VISUAL-CORTEX
KW - PERFORMANCE
KW - CORTICAL-NEURONS
KW - natural images
KW - phonetics
KW - feature integration
KW - STRIATE CORTEX
KW - neuronal correlation
KW - DISCRIMINATION
KW - RECOGNITION
KW - NATURAL IMAGES
KW - PERCEPTION
KW - MODELS
KW - BINDING PROBLEM
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79953300999&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1098/rspb.2010.1888
DO - 10.1098/rspb.2010.1888
M3 - Journal article
VL - 278
SP - 1365
EP - 1372
JO - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
JF - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
SN - 0962-8452
IS - 1710
ER -