ArticleNature neuroscience2011
Owl's behavior and neural representation predicted by Bayesian inference.
Article in Nature neuroscience, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 72 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
72 citing papers in PubMed.
- Neural Circuit with Top-Down Inhibitory Feedback Outperforms Optimal Bayesian Integration in Multisensory Integration.Neuroscience bulletin · 2026Article
- A shared multi-feature population code for sensory reliability across mouse visual cortex.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Population decoding of sound source location by receptive field neurons in the mouse superior colliculus.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Neural Responses Underlying Interaural Time Difference Discrimination as a Function of Sensory Reliability in the Barn Owl.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Article
- Perceptual learning improves discrimination but does not reduce distortions in appearance.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Uncertainty estimation with prediction-error circuits.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Bayesian active sound localisation: To what extent do humans perform like an ideal-observer?PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Distinct Neuron Types Contribute to Hybrid Auditory Spatial Coding.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Toward a computational role for locus coeruleus/norepinephrine arousal systems.Current opinion in behavioral sciences · 2024Article
- A unified framework for perceived magnitude and discriminability of sensory stimuli.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Conductance-based dendrites perform Bayes-optimal cue integration.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- A unifying theory explains seemingly contradictory biases in perceptual estimation.Nature neuroscience · 2024Article
- Barn owls specialized sound-driven behavior: Lessons in optimal processing and coding by the auditory system.Hearing research · 2024Review
- Single trial Bayesian inference by population vector readout in the barn owl's sound localization system.PloS one · 2024Article
- The continued importance of comparative auditory research to modern scientific discovery.Hearing research · 2023Review
- Development of frequency tuning shaped by spatial cue reliability in the barn owl's auditory midbrain.eLife · 2023Article
- An artificial neural network explains how bats might use vision for navigation.Communications biology · 2022Article
- Two Types of Auditory Spatial Receptive Fields in Different Parts of the Chicken's Midbrain.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2022Article
- Emergence of probabilistic representation in the neural network of primary visual cortex.iScience · 2022Article
12 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The owl captures prey using sound localization. In the classical model, the owl infers sound direction from the position of greatest activity in a brain map of auditory space. However, this model fails to describe the actual behavior. Although owls accurately localize sources near the center of gaze, they systematically underestimate peripheral source directions. We found that this behavior is predicted by statistical inference, formulated as a Bayesian model that emphasizes central directions. We propose that there is a bias in the neural coding of auditory space, which, at the expense of inducing errors in the periphery, achieves high behavioral accuracy at the ethologically relevant range. We found that the owl's map of auditory space decoded by a population vector is consistent with the behavioral model. Thus, a probabilistic model describes both how the map of auditory space supports behavior and why this representation is optimal.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.