Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Outputs (47)

The overlooked role of unisensory precision in multisensory research. (2024)
Journal Article
Zhu, H., Beierholm, U., & Shams, L. (2024). The overlooked role of unisensory precision in multisensory research. Current Biology, 34(6), R229-R231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.057

Zhu et al. present an alternative explanation for the weaker multisensory illusions in football goalkeepers compared with outfielders and non-athletes, showing that better unisensory precision in goalkeepers can also account for this effect.

Proximity to rewards modulates parameters of effortful control exertion. (2024)
Journal Article
Devine, S., Roy, M., Beierholm, U., & Otto, A. R. (2024). Proximity to rewards modulates parameters of effortful control exertion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 153(5), 1257–1267. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001561

The now-classic goal-gradient hypothesis posits that organisms increase effort expenditure as a function of their proximity to a goal. Despite nearly a century having passed since its original formulation, goal-gradient-like behavior in human cogniti... Read More about Proximity to rewards modulates parameters of effortful control exertion..

A presaccadic perceptual impairment at the postsaccadic location of the blindspot (2023)
Journal Article
Smith, D. T., Beierholm, U., & Avery, M. (2023). A presaccadic perceptual impairment at the postsaccadic location of the blindspot. PLoS ONE, 18(9), Article e0291582. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291582

Saccadic eye movements are preceded by profound changes in visual perception. These changes have been linked to the phenomenon of ‘forward remapping’, in which cells begin to respond to stimuli that appear in their post-saccadic receptive field befor... Read More about A presaccadic perceptual impairment at the postsaccadic location of the blindspot.

Different types of uncertainty in multisensory perceptual decision making (2023)
Journal Article
Aston, S., Nardini, M., & Beierholm, U. (2023). Different types of uncertainty in multisensory perceptual decision making. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 378(1886), Article 20220349. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0349

Efficient decision-making requires accounting for sources of uncertainty (noise, or variability). Many studies have shown how the nervous system is able to account for perceptual uncertainty (noise, variability) that arises from limitations in its ow... Read More about Different types of uncertainty in multisensory perceptual decision making.

Newly learned shape-colour associations show signatures of reliability-weighted averaging without forced fusion or a memory colour effect (2022)
Journal Article
Aston, S., Pattie, C., Graham, R., Slater, H., Beierholm, U., & Nardini, M. (2022). Newly learned shape-colour associations show signatures of reliability-weighted averaging without forced fusion or a memory colour effect. Journal of Vision, 22(13), Article 8. https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.22.13.8

Reliability-weighted averaging of multiple perceptual estimates (or cues) can improve precision. Research suggests that newly-learned statistical associations can be rapidly integrated in this way for efficient decision-making. Yet, it remains unclea... Read More about Newly learned shape-colour associations show signatures of reliability-weighted averaging without forced fusion or a memory colour effect.

Developmental changes in colour constancy in a naturalistic object selection task (2022)
Journal Article
Wedge-Roberts, R., Aston, S., Beierholm, U., Kentridge, R., Hurlbert, A., Nardini, M., & Olkkonen, M. (2023). Developmental changes in colour constancy in a naturalistic object selection task. Developmental Science, 26(2), Article e13306. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13306

When the illumination falling on a surface changes, so does the reflected light. Despite this, adult observers are good at perceiving surfaces as relatively unchanging – an ability termed colour constancy. Very few studies have investigated colour co... Read More about Developmental changes in colour constancy in a naturalistic object selection task.

Evaluating Gaussian Grasp Maps for Generative Grasping Models (2022)
Conference Proceeding
Prew, W., Breckon, T., Bordewich, M., & Beierholm, U. (2022). Evaluating Gaussian Grasp Maps for Generative Grasping Models.

Generalising robotic grasping to previously unseen objects is a key task in general robotic manipulation. The current method for training many antipodal generative grasping models rely on a binary ground truth grasp map generated from the centre thir... Read More about Evaluating Gaussian Grasp Maps for Generative Grasping Models.

Dopamine and reward-related vigor in younger and older adults (2022)
Journal Article
Hird, E. J., Beierholm, U., De Boer, L., Axelsson, J., Backman, L., & Guitart-Masip, M. (2022). Dopamine and reward-related vigor in younger and older adults. Neurobiology of Aging, 118, 34-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2022.06.003

Vigor reflects how motivated people are to respond to stimuli. We previously showed that, on average, humans are more vigorous when a higher rate of reward is available, and that this relationship is modulated by the dopamine precursor levodopa. Dopa... Read More about Dopamine and reward-related vigor in younger and older adults.

Bayesian Causal Inference: A Unifying Neuroscience Theory (2022)
Journal Article
Shams, L., & Beierholm, U. (2022). Bayesian Causal Inference: A Unifying Neuroscience Theory. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 137, Article 104619. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104619

Understanding of the brain and the principles governing neural processing requires theories that are parsimonious, can account for a diverse set of phenomena, and can make testable predictions. Here, we review the theory of Bayesian causal inference,... Read More about Bayesian Causal Inference: A Unifying Neuroscience Theory.

Newly learned novel cues to location are combined with familiar cues but not always with each other (2022)
Journal Article
Aston, S., Beierholm, U., & Nardini, M. (2022). Newly learned novel cues to location are combined with familiar cues but not always with each other. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 48(6), 639-652. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0001014

Mature perceptual systems can learn new arbitrary sensory signals (novel cues) to properties of the environment, but little is known about the extent to which novel cues are integrated into normal perception. In normal perception, multiple uncertain... Read More about Newly learned novel cues to location are combined with familiar cues but not always with each other.

Neuromatch Academy: a 3-week, online summer school in computational neuroscience (2022)
Journal Article
’t Hart, B., Achakulvisut, T., Adeyemi, A., Akrami, A., Alicea, B., Alonso-Andres, A., …van Viegen, T. (2022). Neuromatch Academy: a 3-week, online summer school in computational neuroscience. The journal of open source education, 5(49), Article 118. https://doi.org/10.21105/jose.00118

Neuromatch Academy (https://academy.neuromatch.io; (van Viegen et al., 2021)) was designed as an online summer school to cover the basics of computational neuroscience in three weeks. The materials cover dominant and emerging computational neuroscien... Read More about Neuromatch Academy: a 3-week, online summer school in computational neuroscience.

Detecting a viewer's familiarity with a face: Evidence from event-related brain potentials and classifier analyses (2021)
Journal Article
Wiese, H., Anderson, D., Beierholm, U., Tuettenberg, S. C., Young, A. W., & Burton, A. M. (2022). Detecting a viewer's familiarity with a face: Evidence from event-related brain potentials and classifier analyses. Psychophysiology, 59(1), Article e13950. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13950

Human observers recognise the faces of people they know efficiently and without apparent effort. Consequently, recognising a familiar face is often assumed to be an automatic process beyond voluntary control. However, there are circumstances in which... Read More about Detecting a viewer's familiarity with a face: Evidence from event-related brain potentials and classifier analyses.

Central tendency biases must be accounted for to consistently capture Bayesian cue combination in continuous response data (2021)
Journal Article
Aston, S., Negen, J., Nardini, M., & Beierholm, U. (2022). Central tendency biases must be accounted for to consistently capture Bayesian cue combination in continuous response data. Behavior Research Methods, 54(1), 508-521. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01633-2

Observers in perceptual tasks are often reported to combine multiple sensory cues in a weighted average that improves precision – in some studies, approaching statistically-optimal (Bayesian) weighting, but in others departing from optimality, or not... Read More about Central tendency biases must be accounted for to consistently capture Bayesian cue combination in continuous response data.

Improving Robotic Grasping on Monocular Images Via Multi-Task Learning and Positional Loss (2021)
Conference Proceeding
Prew, W., Breckon, T., Bordewich, M., & Beierholm, U. (2021). Improving Robotic Grasping on Monocular Images Via Multi-Task Learning and Positional Loss. . https://doi.org/10.1109/icpr48806.2021.9413197

In this paper we introduce two methods of improving real-time object grasping performance from monocular colour images in an end-to-end CNN architecture. The first is the addition of an auxiliary task during model training (multi-task learning). Our... Read More about Improving Robotic Grasping on Monocular Images Via Multi-Task Learning and Positional Loss.

Using the past to estimate sensory uncertainty (2020)
Journal Article
Beierholm, U., Rohe, T., Ferrari, A., Stegle, O., & Noppeney, U. (2020). Using the past to estimate sensory uncertainty. eLife, 9, Article e54172. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.54172

To form a more reliable percept of the environment, the brain needs to estimate its own sensory uncertainty. Current theories of perceptual inference assume that the brain computes sensory uncertainty instantaneously and independently for each stimul... Read More about Using the past to estimate sensory uncertainty.

Specular highlights improve colour constancy when other cues are weakened (2020)
Journal Article
Wedge-Roberts, R., Aston, S., Beierholm, U., Kentridge, R., Hurlbert, A., Nardini, M., & Olkkonen, M. (2020). Specular highlights improve colour constancy when other cues are weakened. Journal of Vision, 20(12), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.20.12.4

Previous studies suggest that to achieve color constancy, the human visual system makes use of multiple cues, including a priori assumptions about the illumination (“daylight priors”). Specular highlights have been proposed to aid constancy, but the... Read More about Specular highlights improve colour constancy when other cues are weakened.

Using Occam's razor and Bayesian modelling to compare discrete and continuous representations in numerosity judgements (2020)
Journal Article
Spicer, J., Sanborn, A. N., & Beierholm, U. R. (2020). Using Occam's razor and Bayesian modelling to compare discrete and continuous representations in numerosity judgements. Cognitive Psychology, 122, Article 101309. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2020.101309

Previous research has established that numeric estimates are based not just on perceptual data but also past experience, and so may be influenced by the form of this stored information. It remains unclear, however, how such experience is represented:... Read More about Using Occam's razor and Bayesian modelling to compare discrete and continuous representations in numerosity judgements.

Bayesian transfer in a complex spatial localization task (2020)
Journal Article
Kiryakova, R., Aston, S., Beierholm, U., & Nardini, M. (2020). Bayesian transfer in a complex spatial localization task. Journal of Vision, 20(6), Article 17. https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.20.6.17

Prior knowledge can help observers in various situations. Adults can simultaneously learn two location priors and integrate these with sensory information to locate hidden objects. Importantly, observers weight prior and sensory (likelihood) informat... Read More about Bayesian transfer in a complex spatial localization task.

Older adults sacrifice response speed to preserve multisensory integration performance (2019)
Journal Article
Jones, S. A., Beierholm, U., Meijer, D., & Noppeney, U. (2019). Older adults sacrifice response speed to preserve multisensory integration performance. Neurobiology of Aging, 84, 148-157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2019.08.017

Ageing has been shown to impact multisensory perception, but the underlying computational mechanisms are unclear. For effective interactions with the environment, observers should integrate signals that share a common source, weighted by their reliab... Read More about Older adults sacrifice response speed to preserve multisensory integration performance.

Explaining the Effect of Likelihood Manipulation and Prior through a Neural Network of the Audiovisual Perception of Space (2019)
Journal Article
Ursino, M., Cuppini, C., Magosso, E., Beierholm, U., & Shams, L. (2019). Explaining the Effect of Likelihood Manipulation and Prior through a Neural Network of the Audiovisual Perception of Space. Multisensory Research, 32(2), 111-144. https://doi.org/10.1163/22134808-20191324

Results in the recent literature suggest that multisensory integration in the brain follows the rules of Bayesian inference. However, how neural circuits can realize such inference and how it can be learned from experience is still the subject of act... Read More about Explaining the Effect of Likelihood Manipulation and Prior through a Neural Network of the Audiovisual Perception of Space.

The effect of attachment and environmental manipulations on cooperative behavior in the prisoner’s dilemma game (2018)
Journal Article
Taheri, M., Rotshtein, P., & Beierholm, U. (2018). The effect of attachment and environmental manipulations on cooperative behavior in the prisoner’s dilemma game. PLoS ONE, 13(11), Article e0205730. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205730

Cooperation and competition are vital for human survival and for social progress. In this study we examine the impact of external (environmental) and internal (individual differences) factors on the tendency to cooperate or compete in social conflict... Read More about The effect of attachment and environmental manipulations on cooperative behavior in the prisoner’s dilemma game.

Prior expectation of objects in space is dependent on the direction of gaze (2018)
Journal Article
Odegaard, B., Beierholm, U., Carpenter, J., & Shams, L. (2018). Prior expectation of objects in space is dependent on the direction of gaze. Cognition, 182, 220-226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.10.011

Many studies of multisensory spatial localization have shown that observers’ responses are well-characterized by Bayesian inference, as localization judgments are influenced not only by the reliability of sensory encoding, but expectations about wher... Read More about Prior expectation of objects in space is dependent on the direction of gaze.

Nutritional status and the influence of TV consumption on female body size ideals in populations recently exposed to the media (2017)
Journal Article
Jucker, J., Thornborrow, T., Beierholm, U., Burt, D., Barton, R., Evans, E., …Boothroyd, L. (2017). Nutritional status and the influence of TV consumption on female body size ideals in populations recently exposed to the media. Scientific Reports, 7(1), Article 8438. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-08653-z

Television consumption influences perceptions of attractive female body size. However, cross-cultural research examining media influence on body ideals is typically confounded by differences in the availability of reliable and diverse foodstuffs. 112... Read More about Nutritional status and the influence of TV consumption on female body size ideals in populations recently exposed to the media.

Opposing effects of reward and punishment on human vigor (2017)
Journal Article
Griffiths, B., & Beierholm, U. (2017). Opposing effects of reward and punishment on human vigor. Scientific Reports, 7, Article 42287. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep42287

The vigor with which humans and animals engage in a task is often a determinant of the likelihood of the task’s success. An influential theoretical model suggests that the speed and rate at which responses are made should depend on the availability o... Read More about Opposing effects of reward and punishment on human vigor.

A non-parametric Bayesian prior for causal inference of auditory streaming (2017)
Conference Proceeding
Yates, T., Larigaldie, N., & Beierholm, U. (2017). A non-parametric Bayesian prior for causal inference of auditory streaming. In G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E. . J. Davelaar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (1381-1386). https://doi.org/10.1101/139188

traditionally been modeled using a mechanistic approach. The problem however is essentially one of source inference – a problem that has recently been tackled using statistical Bayesian models in visual and auditory-visual modalities. Usually the mod... Read More about A non-parametric Bayesian prior for causal inference of auditory streaming.

Fast and Accurate Learning When Making Discrete Numerical Estimates (2016)
Journal Article
Sanborn, A., & Beierholm, U. (2016). Fast and Accurate Learning When Making Discrete Numerical Estimates. PLoS Computational Biology, 12(4), Article e1004859. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004859

Many everyday estimation tasks have an inherently discrete nature, whether the task is counting objects (e.g., a number of paint buckets) or estimating discretized continuous variables (e.g., the number of paint buckets needed to paint a room). While... Read More about Fast and Accurate Learning When Making Discrete Numerical Estimates.

Dopamine Modulates Reward-Related Vigor (2013)
Journal Article
Beierholm, U., Guitart-Masip, M., Economides, M., Chowdhury, R., Düzel, E., Dolan, R., & Dayan, P. (2013). Dopamine Modulates Reward-Related Vigor. Neuropsychopharmacology, 38, 1495-1503. https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2013.48

Subjects routinely control the vigor with which they emit motoric responses. However, the bulk of formal treatments of decision-making ignores this dimension of choice. A recent theoretical study suggested that action vigor should be influenced by ex... Read More about Dopamine Modulates Reward-Related Vigor.

The human prefrontal cortex mediates integration of potential causes behind observed outcomes (2011)
Journal Article
Wunderlich, K., Beierholm, U. R., Bossaerts, P., & O'Doherty, J. P. (2011). The human prefrontal cortex mediates integration of potential causes behind observed outcomes. Journal of Neurophysiology, 106(3), 1558-1569. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.01051.2010

Prefrontal cortex has long been implicated in tasks involving higher order inference in which decisions must be rendered, not only about which stimulus is currently rewarded, but also which stimulus dimensions are currently relevant. However, the pre... Read More about The human prefrontal cortex mediates integration of potential causes behind observed outcomes.

Separate encoding of model-based and model-free valuations in the human brain (2011)
Journal Article
Beierholm, U. R., Anen, C., Quartz, S., & Bossaerts, P. (2011). Separate encoding of model-based and model-free valuations in the human brain. NeuroImage, 58(3), 955-962. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.06.071

Behavioral studies have long shown that humans solve problems in two ways, one intuitive and fast (System 1, model-free), and the other reflective and slow (System 2, model-based). The neurobiological basis of dual process problem solving remains unk... Read More about Separate encoding of model-based and model-free valuations in the human brain.

Comparing Bayesian models for multisensory cue combination without mandatory integration (2008)
Conference Proceeding
Beierholm, U., Kording, K., Shams, L., & Ma, W. (2008). Comparing Bayesian models for multisensory cue combination without mandatory integration. In J. C. Platt, D. Koller, Y. Singer, & S. T. Roweis (Eds.), Advances in neural information processing systems 20: Proceedings of the 21st Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems 2007; December 3-6, 2007, Vancouver, B.C., Canada (81-88)

Bayesian models of multisensory perception traditionally address the problem of estimating an underlying variable that is assumed to be the cause of the two sensory signals. The brain, however, has to solve a more general problem: it also has to esta... Read More about Comparing Bayesian models for multisensory cue combination without mandatory integration.

Causal inference in multisensory perception (2007)
Journal Article
Körding, K., Beierholm, U., Ma, W., Quartz, S., Tenenbaum, J., & Shams, L. (2007). Causal inference in multisensory perception. PLoS ONE, 2(9), Article e943. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0000943

Perceptual events derive their significance to an animal from their meaning about the world, that is from the information they carry about their causes. The brain should thus be able to efficiently infer the causes underlying our sensory events. Here... Read More about Causal inference in multisensory perception.

“Sausage-string” appearance of arteries and arterioles can be caused by an instability of the blood vessel wall (2002)
Journal Article
Jacobsen, J., Beierholm, U., Mikkelsen, R., Gustafsson, F., Alstrøm, P., & Holstein-Rathlou, N. (2002). “Sausage-string” appearance of arteries and arterioles can be caused by an instability of the blood vessel wall. American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 283(5), R1118-R1130. https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpregu.00006.2002

Vascular damage induced by acute hypertension is preceded by a peculiar pattern where blood vessels show alternating regions of constrictions and dilations (“sausages on a string”). The pattern occurs in the smaller blood vessels, and it plays a cent... Read More about “Sausage-string” appearance of arteries and arterioles can be caused by an instability of the blood vessel wall.