Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38317216›Full record

ArticleBMC biology2024

The functional role of spatial anisotropies in ensemble perception.

Natalia A Tiurina, Yuri A Markov, David Whitney, David Pascucci

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMC biology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing 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

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Time Course of Orientation Ensemble Representation in the Human Brain.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Natalia A TiurinaLaboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland. nataliatiurina@gmail.com.ORCID 0000-0002-1631-4042
Yuri A MarkovLaboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland.
David WhitneyVision Science Graduate Group, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, USA.
David PascucciLaboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland.

Funding

Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung PZ00P1_179988Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung PZ00P1_179988/2Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship (ESKAS) NT
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThe human brain can rapidly represent sets of similar stimuli by their ensemble summary statistics, like the average orientation or size. Classic models assume that ensemble statistics are computed by integrating all elements with equal weight. Challenging this view, here, we show that ensemble statistics are estimated by combining parafoveal and foveal statistics in proportion to their reliability. In a series of experiments, observers reproduced the average orientation of an ensemble of stimuli under varying levels of visual uncertainty.

resultsEnsemble statistics were affected by multiple spatial biases, in particular, a strong and persistent bias towards the center of the visual field. This bias, evident in the majority of subjects and in all experiments, scaled with uncertainty: the higher the uncertainty in the ensemble statistics, the larger the bias towards the element shown at the fovea.

conclusionOur findings indicate that ensemble perception cannot be explained by simple uniform pooling. The visual system weights information anisotropically from both the parafovea and the fovea, taking the intrinsic spatial anisotropies of vision into account to compensate for visual uncertainty.

Indexed as

BrainVision, OcularAnisotropyHumansPerceptionReproducibility of ResultsEnsemble codingEnsemble perceptionSpatial biasesStatistical perceptionSummary statisticsVisual uncertainty

Identifiers

PMID38317216
PMCPMC10845794

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.