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Updated: Mar 31, 2026

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior
Published on: April 16, 2014
Sensory uncertainty decoded from visual cortex predicts behavior
Ruben S van Bergen1, Wei Ji Ma2, Michael S Pratte3
1Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Abstract:
Bayesian theories of neural coding propose that sensory uncertainty is represented by a probability distribution encoded in neural population activity, but direct neural evidence supporting this hypothesis is currently lacking. Using fMRI in combination with a generative model-based analysis, we found that probability distributions reflecting sensory uncertainty could reliably be estimated from human visual cortex and, moreover, that observers appeared to use knowledge of this uncertainty in their perceptual decisions.
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