Sensorimotor priors are effector-dependent.

During sensorimotor tasks, subjects use sensory feedback but also prior information. It is often assumed that the sensorimotor prior is just given by the experiment and that the details for acquiring this prior, e.g., the effector, are irrelevant. However, recent research has suggested that the construction of priors is nontrivial. To test if the sensorimotor details matter for the construction of a prior, we design two tasks which differ only in the effectors that subjects use to indicate their estimate. Both for a typical reaching setting and for an atypical wrist rotation setting, prior and feedback uncertainty matter as quantitatively predicted by Bayesian statistics. However, in violation of simple Bayesian models, the importance of the prior differs across effectors. Subjects overly rely on their prior in the typical reaching case compared to the wrist case. The brain is not naively Bayesian with a single and veridical prior.

[1]  Konrad Paul Kording,et al.  Learning Priors for Bayesian Computations in the Nervous System , 2010, PloS one.

[2]  Timothy E. J. Behrens,et al.  Brain Systems for Probabilistic and Dynamic Prediction: Computational Specificity and Integration , 2013, PLoS biology.

[3]  D. Knill,et al.  The perception of cast shadows , 1998, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[4]  Konrad Paul Kording,et al.  Sensory Cue Integration , 2011 .

[5]  Michael N. Shadlen,et al.  Temporal context calibrates interval timing , 2010, Nature Neuroscience.

[6]  Konrad P Kording,et al.  The integration of probabilistic information during sensorimotor estimation is unimpaired in children with Cerebral Palsy , 2017, PloS one.

[7]  Hugo L. Fernandes,et al.  Differential Representations of Prior and Likelihood Uncertainty in the Human Brain , 2012, Current Biology.

[8]  Konrad Paul Kording,et al.  Relevance of error: what drives motor adaptation? , 2009, Journal of neurophysiology.

[9]  Ulrik R. Beierholm,et al.  Causal inference in perception , 2010, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[10]  Michael S Landy,et al.  Combining Priors and Noisy Visual Cues in a Rapid Pointing Task , 2006, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[11]  Konrad Paul Kording,et al.  Bayesian integration in sensorimotor learning , 2004, Nature.

[12]  D. Kersten,et al.  Illusions, perception and Bayes , 2002, Nature Neuroscience.

[13]  Konrad P. Körding,et al.  Bayesian Integration and Non-Linear Feedback Control in a Full-Body Motor Task , 2009, PLoS Comput. Biol..

[14]  Yoshiyuki Sato,et al.  How much to trust the senses: likelihood learning. , 2014, Journal of vision.

[15]  Paul R. Schrater,et al.  Effects of visual uncertainty on grasping movements , 2007, Experimental Brain Research.

[16]  L. Maloney,et al.  Bayesian decision theory as a model of human visual perception: Testing Bayesian transfer , 2009, Visual Neuroscience.

[17]  Eero P. Simoncelli,et al.  Noise characteristics and prior expectations in human visual speed perception , 2006, Nature Neuroscience.

[18]  Merav Ahissar,et al.  How Recent History Affects Perception: The Normative Approach and Its Heuristic Approximation , 2012, PLoS Comput. Biol..

[19]  Richard N. Aslin,et al.  Learning and inference using complex generative models in a spatial localization task , 2016, Journal of vision.

[20]  Neil W Roach,et al.  Generalization of prior information for rapid Bayesian time estimation , 2016, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[21]  Konrad P. Kording,et al.  Decision Theory: What "Should" the Nervous System Do? , 2007 .

[22]  Qining Wang,et al.  Credit assignment between body and object probed by an object transportation task , 2017, Scientific Reports.

[23]  Konrad P. Kording,et al.  Generalization of Stochastic Visuomotor Rotations , 2012, PloS one.

[24]  Konrad Paul Kording,et al.  Estimating the sources of motor errors for adaptation and generalization , 2008, Nature Neuroscience.

[25]  Konrad P Kording,et al.  The Generalization of Prior Uncertainty during Reaching , 2014, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[26]  A. Kristofferson,et al.  Response delays and the timing of discrete motor responses , 1973 .

[27]  Stuart J. Russell,et al.  Principles of Metareasoning , 1989, Artif. Intell..

[28]  M. Miyazaki,et al.  Testing Bayesian models of human coincidence timing. , 2005, Journal of neurophysiology.