Effective Tactile Noise Facilitates Visual Perception

摘要

The fulcrum principle establishes that a subthreshold excitatory signal (entering in one sense) that is syn-chronous with a facilitation signal (entering in a different sense) can be increased (up to a resonant-like level)and then decreased by the energy and frequency content of the facilitating signal. As a result, the sensationof the signal changes according to the excitatory signal strength. In this context, the sensitivity transitionsrepresent the change from subthreshold activity to a firing activity in multisensory neurons. Initially theenergy of their activity (supplied by the weak signals) is not enough to be detected but when the facilitat-ing signal enters the brain, it generates a general activation among multisensory neurons, modifying theiroriginal activity. In our opinion, the result is an integrated activation that promotes sensitivity transitionsand the signals are then perceived. In other words, the activity created by the interaction of the excitatorysignal (e.g., visual) and the facilitating signal (tactile noise) at some specific energy, produces the capabilityfor a central detection of an otherwise weak signal. In this work we investigate the effect of an effectivetactile noise on visual perception. Specifically we show that tactile noise is capable of decreasing luminancemodulated thresholds.