Bremmer Frank, Churan Jan, Lappe Markus
Department of Neurophysics & Marburg Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior - MCMBB, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Karl-von-Frisch Straße 8a, 35043, Marburg, Germany.
Department of Psychology & Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Fliednerstraße 21, 48149, Münster, Germany.
Nat Commun. 2017 Oct 13;8(1):920. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-01021-5.
Perceptual illusions help to understand how sensory signals are decoded in the brain. Here we report that the opposite approach is also applicable, i.e., results from decoding neural activity from monkey extrastriate visual cortex correctly predict a hitherto unknown perceptual illusion in humans. We record neural activity from monkey medial superior temporal (MST) and ventral intraparietal (VIP) area during presentation of self-motion stimuli and concurrent reflexive eye movements. A heading-decoder performs veridically during slow eye movements. During fast eye movements (saccades), however, the decoder erroneously reports compression of heading toward straight ahead. Functional equivalents of macaque areas MST and VIP have been identified in humans, implying a perceptual correlate (illusion) of this perisaccadic decoding error. Indeed, a behavioral experiment in humans shows that perceived heading is perisaccadically compressed toward the direction of gaze. Response properties of primate areas MST and VIP are consistent with being the substrate of the newly described visual illusion.Macaque higher visual areas MST and VIP encode heading direction based on self-motion stimuli. Here the authors show that, while making saccades, the heading direction decoded from the neural responses is compressed toward straight-ahead, and independently demonstrate a perceptual illusion in humans based on this perisaccadic decoding error.
知觉错觉有助于理解感觉信号在大脑中是如何被解码的。在此我们报告，相反的方法同样适用，也就是说，从猴子纹外视觉皮层解码神经活动所得到的结果能够正确预测一种迄今未知的人类知觉错觉。我们在呈现自我运动刺激以及同时发生的反射性眼动期间，记录猴子内侧颞上叶（MST）和顶内腹侧区（VIP）的神经活动。一个航向解码器在慢速眼动期间能够准确发挥作用。然而，在快速眼动（扫视）期间，该解码器错误地报告航向朝着正前方压缩。在人类中已经确定了猕猴MST区和VIP区的功能等效区域，这意味着这种扫视周围解码错误存在一种知觉关联（错觉）。确实，一项针对人类的行为实验表明，知觉到的航向在扫视周围朝着注视方向被压缩。灵长类动物MST区和VIP区的反应特性与作为新描述的视觉错觉的基础是一致的。猕猴的高级视觉区域MST和VIP基于自我运动刺激对航向方向进行编码。在此，作者表明，在进行扫视时，从神经反应解码得到的航向方向朝着正前方被压缩，并且独立地基于这种扫视周围解码错误在人类中证实了一种知觉错觉。
