Illusory sound texture reveals multi-second statistical completion in auditory scene analysis
© 2019, The Author(s). Sound sources in the world are experienced as stable even when intermittently obscured, implying perceptual completion mechanisms that “fill in” missing sensory information. We demonstrate a filling-in phenomenon in which the brain extrapolates the statistics of background sou...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/136522 |
| _version_ | 1811086906324156416 |
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| author | McWalter, Richard McDermott, Josh H |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences McWalter, Richard McDermott, Josh H |
| author_sort | McWalter, Richard |
| collection | MIT |
| description | © 2019, The Author(s). Sound sources in the world are experienced as stable even when intermittently obscured, implying perceptual completion mechanisms that “fill in” missing sensory information. We demonstrate a filling-in phenomenon in which the brain extrapolates the statistics of background sounds (textures) over periods of several seconds when they are interrupted by another sound, producing vivid percepts of illusory texture. The effect differs from previously described completion effects in that 1) the extrapolated sound must be defined statistically given the stochastic nature of texture, and 2) the effect lasts much longer, enabling introspection and facilitating assessment of the underlying representation. Illusory texture biases subsequent texture statistic estimates indistinguishably from actual texture, suggesting that it is represented similarly to actual texture. The illusion appears to represent an inference about whether the background is likely to continue during concurrent sounds, providing a stable statistical representation of the ongoing environment despite unstable sensory evidence. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:36:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/136522 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:36:44Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1365222023-12-12T19:43:18Z Illusory sound texture reveals multi-second statistical completion in auditory scene analysis McWalter, Richard McDermott, Josh H Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT © 2019, The Author(s). Sound sources in the world are experienced as stable even when intermittently obscured, implying perceptual completion mechanisms that “fill in” missing sensory information. We demonstrate a filling-in phenomenon in which the brain extrapolates the statistics of background sounds (textures) over periods of several seconds when they are interrupted by another sound, producing vivid percepts of illusory texture. The effect differs from previously described completion effects in that 1) the extrapolated sound must be defined statistically given the stochastic nature of texture, and 2) the effect lasts much longer, enabling introspection and facilitating assessment of the underlying representation. Illusory texture biases subsequent texture statistic estimates indistinguishably from actual texture, suggesting that it is represented similarly to actual texture. The illusion appears to represent an inference about whether the background is likely to continue during concurrent sounds, providing a stable statistical representation of the ongoing environment despite unstable sensory evidence. 2021-10-27T20:35:46Z 2021-10-27T20:35:46Z 2019 2021-03-26T16:09:21Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/136522 en 10.1038/S41467-019-12893-0 Nature Communications Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Springer Science and Business Media LLC Nature |
| spellingShingle | McWalter, Richard McDermott, Josh H Illusory sound texture reveals multi-second statistical completion in auditory scene analysis |
| title | Illusory sound texture reveals multi-second statistical completion in auditory scene analysis |
| title_full | Illusory sound texture reveals multi-second statistical completion in auditory scene analysis |
| title_fullStr | Illusory sound texture reveals multi-second statistical completion in auditory scene analysis |
| title_full_unstemmed | Illusory sound texture reveals multi-second statistical completion in auditory scene analysis |
| title_short | Illusory sound texture reveals multi-second statistical completion in auditory scene analysis |
| title_sort | illusory sound texture reveals multi second statistical completion in auditory scene analysis |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/136522 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mcwalterrichard illusorysoundtexturerevealsmultisecondstatisticalcompletioninauditorysceneanalysis AT mcdermottjoshh illusorysoundtexturerevealsmultisecondstatisticalcompletioninauditorysceneanalysis |