A new perceptual illusion reveals mechanisms of sensory decoding
Open accessAbstract
Perceptual illusions are usually thought to arise from the way sensory signals are encoded by the brain, and indeed are often used to infer the mechanisms of sensory encoding. But perceptual illusions might also result from the way the brain decodes sensory information, reflecting the strategies that optimize performance in particular tasks. In a fine discrimination task, the most accurate information comes from neurons tuned away from the discrimination boundary, and observers seem to use signals from these 'displaced' neurons to optimize their performance. We wondered whether using signals from these neurons might also bias perception. In a fine direction discrimination task using moving random-dot stimuli, we found that observers' perception of the direction of motion is indeed biased away from the boundary. This misperception can be accurately described by a decoding model that preferentially weights signals from neurons whose responses best discriminate those directions. In a coarse discrimination task, to which a different decoding rule applies, the same stimulus is not misperceived, suggesting that the illusion is a direct consequence of the decoding strategy that observers use to make fine perceptual judgments. The subjective experience of motion is therefore not mediated directly by the responses of sensory neurons, but is only developed after the responses of these neurons are decoded.
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The 90° separation in a 2-choice task increased difficulty slightly.
“Although this angle remains large compared to fine discriminations that humans and monkeys can make 22–24, it did increase difficulty slightly, as shown by 90° separation in a 2-choice task.”
From Decision-making with multiple alternatives (2008) · cites this paper as [22]
The experiment is not definitive about how the computation generalizes to more directions and choices, in part because the angle between alternatives is large compared to the range of angles that primates can discriminate.
“Our experiment is not definitive here, in part because the angle between alternatives is large compared to the range of angles that primates can discriminate 22–24.”
From Decision-making with multiple alternatives (2008) · cites this paper as [22]
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- Authors
- Jazayeri, M., & Movshon, J. A.
- Affiliations
- New York University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Jazayeri, Mehrdad
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2007-04
- Volume
- 446
- Issue
- 7138
- Pages
- 912-915
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- PMC
- PMC3010210
- OpenAlex
- W2149624859
- Cited by
- 173
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 4.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Eye Institute (R01EY002017, R01EY004440)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Motor Control and Adaptation
- Keywords
- perceptual illusions, motion direction perception, random dot motion, perceptual bias
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Humans, Illusions, Models, Neurological, Motion, Neurons, Visual Perception
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