Variability of dominance phases in bistable perception: history-dependence and noisy dynamics
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1
Pompeu Fabra University, Department of Technology, Spain
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2
Centre de Recerca Matemática, UAB Science Faculty, Spain
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3
Otto-von-Guericke University, Institute of Biology, Germany
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4
Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Department of Applied Mathematics I, Spain
Bi-stable perception is susceptible to adaptation and therefore depends on history, even for continuous displays. Modest but statistical significant temporal regularities in sequences of perceptual transitions can be detected by a novel concept in which a cumulative history for each reported percept is computed by the exponential convolution – with time constant τH – of the previous perceptual trace (Perception 2009, 38 (Supp), p. 184; BMC Neurosci 2009, 10 (Suppl 1): P364). However, the modest degree of the history-dependence found for the dominance phases, coupled with extended transitions in the event of balanced histories, seems to support an essentially noise-driven nature of the perceptual reversals (J Neurophysiol 2007, 98: 1125-1139; J Vision 2006, 6(11): 1244-1256). In this work we demonstrate that both mechanisms could be present in the underlying neural system, thereby explaining the enormous variability found in the average duration of the dominance phases reported by different subjects. Figure 1 (independent plot, right) shows the dependence of on the history time-scale τH that was found in a set of seven observers, who were confronted with an ambiguous stimulus generated by kinetic-depth effect (KDE) of a spherical cluster of rotating dots. In a second panel (left), however, the results of a computational analysis of the same data by using a simple rate model, demonstrates that all the subjects fit well in a Noise-driven dynamics regime rather than in an Adaptation-driven system. In the first case, noise is indispensable to get alternations between the two possible perceptual states, whereas it is just the source of dispersion in dominance time distribution in the second regime. Further sub-figures in the same part of Figure 1. illustrate how noise amplitude (σn) and adaptation (ΦH) or inhibition (β) strengths may contribute to the variance usually found.
Keywords:
computational neuroscience
Conference:
Bernstein Conference on Computational Neuroscience, Berlin, Germany, 27 Sep - 1 Oct, 2010.
Presentation Type:
Presentation
Topic:
Bernstein Conference on Computational Neuroscience
Citation:
Rodriguez
PG,
Pastukhov
A,
Deco
G,
Braun
J,
Guillamon
A and
Haenicke
J
(2010). Variability of dominance phases in bistable perception: history-dependence and noisy dynamics.
Front. Comput. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
Bernstein Conference on Computational Neuroscience.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fncom.2010.51.00083
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Received:
14 Sep 2010;
Published Online:
23 Sep 2010.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Pedro Ernesto G Rodriguez, Pompeu Fabra University, Department of Technology, Barcelona, Spain, pedroernesto.garcia@upf.edu