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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 23, 2025

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior

Published on: April 16, 2014

Circular inference in bistable perception.

Pantelis Leptourgos^1,1, Charles-Edouard Notredame¹, Marion Eck¹

¹,.

Journal of Vision

|April 22, 2020

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

The brain

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Visual Perception
Computational Modeling

Background:

Bistable perception involves the brain switching between interpretations of ambiguous images.
The debate continues on whether bottom-up or top-down mechanisms primarily drive bistability.
Bayesian approaches offer a framework to reconcile these competing theories.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the mechanisms underlying bistable perception using a Bayesian framework.
To reconcile the roles of bottom-up sensory evidence and top-down prior knowledge.
To test predictions of Bayes-optimal integration versus alternative models.

Main Methods:

Fifty-five healthy participants performed a modified Necker cube task.
Sensory evidence and prior knowledge (instructions) were experimentally manipulated.
Behavioral responses were analyzed to assess perceptual choices.

Main Results:

Both sensory evidence and prior knowledge significantly influenced Necker cube perception.
An interaction between cue and instruction effects contradicted Bayes-optimal integration predictions.
A circular inference model accurately predicted the observed perceptual biases.

Conclusions:

The findings challenge the notion of purely Bayes-optimal integration in bistable perception.
Perceptual biases appear to arise from systematic influences of expectations on sensory evidence.
A circular inference model provides a better account of Necker cube perception dynamics.