CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 200031 Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100049 Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2023 Sep 25;378(1886):20220334. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0334. Epub 2023 Aug 7.
Integrating noisy signals across time as well as sensory modalities, a process named multi-sensory decision making (MSDM), is an essential strategy for making more accurate and sensitive decisions in complex environments. Although this field is just emerging, recent extraordinary works from different perspectives, including computational theory, psychophysical behaviour and neurophysiology, begin to shed new light onto MSDM. In the current review, we focus on MSDM by using a model system of visuo-vestibular heading. Combining well-controlled behavioural paradigms on virtual-reality systems, single-unit recordings, causal manipulations and computational theory based on spiking activity, recent progress reveals that vestibular signals contain complex temporal dynamics in many brain regions, including unisensory, multi-sensory and sensory-motor association areas. This challenges the brain for cue integration across time and sensory modality such as optic flow which mainly contains a motion velocity signal. In addition, new evidence from the higher-level decision-related areas, mostly in the posterior and frontal/prefrontal regions, helps revise our conventional thought on how signals from different sensory modalities may be processed, converged, and moment-by-moment accumulated through neural circuits for forming a unified, optimal perceptual decision. This article is part of the theme issue 'Decision and control processes in multisensory perception'.
整合跨时间和感觉模态的嘈杂信号，这个过程被称为多感觉决策（MSDM），是在复杂环境中做出更准确和敏感决策的重要策略。尽管这个领域刚刚兴起，但来自不同视角的最新非凡工作，包括计算理论、心理物理学行为和神经生理学，开始为 MSDM 带来新的启示。在当前的综述中，我们通过使用视 - 前庭航向的模型系统来关注 MSDM。结合虚拟现实系统上的受控行为范式、单细胞记录、基于尖峰活动的因果操作和计算理论，最近的进展表明，前庭信号在包括单一感觉、多感觉和感觉运动联合区域在内的许多大脑区域中包含复杂的时间动态。这对大脑提出了挑战，需要对时间和感觉模态（如主要包含运动速度信号的光流）的线索进行整合。此外，来自更高层次的与决策相关的区域的新证据，主要在后区和额/前区，有助于修正我们对不同感觉模态的信号如何通过神经回路进行处理、汇聚和逐点积累，以形成统一的、最佳的感知决策的传统观念。本文是主题为“多感觉感知中的决策和控制过程”的特刊的一部分。
