Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6AE, UK.
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6AE, UK.
Neuron. 2019 Jun 5;102(5):1076-1087.e8. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.03.043. Epub 2019 Apr 29.
When combining information across different senses, humans need to flexibly select cues of a common origin while avoiding distraction from irrelevant inputs. The brain could solve this challenge using a hierarchical principle by deriving rapidly a fused sensory estimate for computational expediency and, later and if required, filtering out irrelevant signals based on the inferred sensory cause(s). Analyzing time- and source-resolved human magnetoencephalographic data, we unveil a systematic spatiotemporal cascade of the relevant computations, starting with early segregated unisensory representations, continuing with sensory fusion in parietal-temporal regions, and culminating as causal inference in the frontal lobe. Our results reconcile previous computational accounts of multisensory perception by showing that prefrontal cortex guides flexible integrative behavior based on candidate representations established in sensory and association cortices, thereby framing multisensory integration in the generalized context of adaptive behavior.
当综合不同感觉的信息时，人类需要灵活地选择共同来源的线索，同时避免受到无关输入的干扰。大脑可以通过使用分层原则来解决这个挑战，为了计算的便利性，快速得出融合的感官估计，然后（如果需要的话）根据推断的感官原因过滤掉不相关的信号。通过分析时间和来源分辨的人类脑磁图数据，我们揭示了相关计算的系统时空级联，从早期分离的单感觉表示开始，继续在后顶叶区域进行感觉融合，最后在前额叶作为因果推断达到顶峰。我们的结果通过显示前额叶皮层基于在感觉和联合皮层中建立的候选表示来指导灵活的整合行为，从而在自适应行为的广义背景下构建多感觉整合，从而调和了先前关于多感觉感知的计算解释。
