Bridging the gap between theories of sensory cue integration and the physiology of multisensory neurons

摘要

The richness of perceptual experience, as well as its usefulness for guiding behavior, depends upon the synthesis of information across multiple senses. Recent decades have witnessed a surge in our understanding of how the brain combines sensory signals, or cues. Much of this research has been guided by one of two distinct approaches, one driven primarily by neurophysiological observations, the other guided by principles of mathematical psychology and psychophysics. Conflicting results and interpretations have contributed to a conceptual gap between psychophysical and physiological accounts of cue integration, but recent studies of visual-vestibular cue integration have narrowed this gap considerably.