Adapting to remapped auditory localization cues: a decision-theory model

Area of Science:

• Auditory perception
• Psychoacoustics
• Computational neuroscience

Background:

• Auditory localization relies on interpreting complex spatial cues.
• Adaptation to altered sensory information is a key aspect of perception.
• Previous models focused on psychophysical performance but lacked explicit consideration of experience-driven changes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a computational model of adaptation to remapped auditory localization cues.
• To explicitly incorporate the influence of past experience on auditory perception.
• To quantify the evolution of subjects' responses during spatial auditory adaptation training.

Main Methods:

• Extension of existing decision-theory models of psychophysical performance.
• Incorporation of assumptions regarding the effect of past experience on perception.
• Quantitative prediction of sensitivity, bias, and resolution in adaptation experiments.

Main Results:

• The model predicts how training alters subjects' responses over time in spatial auditory adaptation.
• It suggests adaptation involves reinterpreting a continuous decision variable, not learning discrete stimulus-response pairs.
• Model predictions align with experimental findings showing inability to adapt to nonlinear cue rearrangements.

Conclusions:

• Past experience significantly impacts auditory localization perception and adaptation.
• Adaptation to remapped auditory cues involves a continuous internal decision variable shift.
• The model provides a quantitative framework for understanding spatial auditory adaptation and its limitations.