文章基本信息

标题：How multisensory neurons solve causal inference
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作者：Reuben Rideaux ; Katherine R. Storrs ; Guido Maiello 等
期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2021
卷号：118
期号：32
DOI：10.1073/pnas.2106235118
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Significance We perceive our environment through multiple independent sources of sensory input. The brain is tasked with deciding whether multiple signals are produced by the same or different events (i.e., solve the problem of causal inference). Here, we train a neural network to solve causal inference by either combining or separating visual and vestibular inputs in order to estimate self- and scene motion. We find that the network recapitulates key neurophysiological (i.e., congruent and opposite neurons) and behavioral (e.g., reliability-based cue weighting) properties of biological systems. We show how congruent and opposite neurons support motion estimation and how the balance in activity between these subpopulations determines whether to combine or separate multisensory signals. Sitting in a static railway carriage can produce illusory self-motion if the train on an adjoining track moves off. While our visual system registers motion, vestibular signals indicate that we are stationary. The brain is faced with a difficult challenge: is there a single cause of sensations (I am moving) or two causes (I am static, another train is moving)? If a single cause, integrating signals produces a more precise estimate of self-motion, but if not, one cue should be ignored. In many cases, this process of causal inference works without error, but how does the brain achieve it? Electrophysiological recordings show that the macaque medial superior temporal area contains many neurons that encode combinations of vestibular and visual motion cues. Some respond best to vestibular and visual motion in the same direction (“congruent” neurons), while others prefer opposing directions (“opposite” neurons). Congruent neurons could underlie cue integration, but the function of opposite neurons remains a puzzle. Here, we seek to explain this computational arrangement by training a neural network model to solve causal inference for motion estimation. Like biological systems, the model develops congruent and opposite units and recapitulates known behavioral and neurophysiological observations. We show that all units (both congruent and opposite) contribute to motion estimation. Importantly, however, it is the balance between their activity that distinguishes whether visual and vestibular cues should be integrated or separated. This explains the computational purpose of puzzling neural representations and shows how a relatively simple feedforward network can solve causal inference.
关键词：encausal inference;multisensory integration;MSTd;visual and vestibular;deep neural network