Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30939128›Full record

ArticlePLoS biology2019

To integrate or not to integrate: Temporal dynamics of hierarchical Bayesian causal inference.

Máté Aller, Uta Noppeney

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PLoS biology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
60citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

60 citing papers in PubMed.

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  12. The illusion of internal models in biological movement.European journal of applied physiology · 2025
    Review
  13. Article
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  15. Article
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  17. Integration of audiovisual speech perception: From infancy to older adults.The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2025
    Article
  18. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Máté AllerComputational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics Centre, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0001-7096-5180
Uta NoppeneyComputational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics Centre, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

To form a percept of the environment, the brain needs to solve the binding problem-inferring whether signals come from a common cause and are integrated or come from independent causes and are segregated. Behaviourally, humans solve this problem near-optimally as predicted by Bayesian causal inference; but the neural mechanisms remain unclear. Combining Bayesian modelling, electroencephalography (EEG), and multivariate decoding in an audiovisual spatial localisation task, we show that the brain accomplishes Bayesian causal inference by dynamically encoding multiple spatial estimates. Initially, auditory and visual signal locations are estimated independently; next, an estimate is formed that combines information from vision and audition. Yet, it is only from 200 ms onwards that the brain integrates audiovisual signals weighted by their bottom-up sensory reliabilities and top-down task relevance into spatial priority maps that guide behavioural responses. As predicted by Bayesian causal inference, these spatial priority maps take into account the brain's uncertainty about the world's causal structure and flexibly arbitrate between sensory integration and segregation. The dynamic evolution of perceptual estimates thus reflects the hierarchical nature of Bayesian causal inference, a statistical computation, which is crucial for effective interactions with the environment.

Indexed as

Acoustic StimulationAdultAuditory PerceptionBayes TheoremBrainElectroencephalographyEye MovementsFemaleHumansMalePhotic StimulationPsychophysicsVisual PerceptionYoung Adult

Identifiers

PMID30939128
PMCPMC6461295

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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.