Combining Sensory Information: Mandatory Fusion within, but Not between, Senses

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 298; no. 5598; pp. 1627 - 1630
• Main Authors: Hillis, J. M., Ernst, M. O., Banks, M. S., Landy, M. S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 22.11.2002; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Analysis; Anatomy; Biological and medical sciences; Consistent estimators; Cues; Error of Measurement; Estimators; Eyes & eyesight; Form Perception; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Mathematics; Maximum likelihood estimation; Multimodal perception; Nervous system; Neurology; Perception; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Quadrants; Rectangles; Senses; Senses and sensation; Sensory discrimination; Sensory information; Sensory perception; Sensory stimulation; Stereognosis; Stimuli; Surface texture; Touch; Vision; Vision Disparity; Visual Perception; United States; Human; Stimulus shape; Tactile sensitivity; Proprioception; Vision; Stimulus modality; Cognition; Disparity; Intermodal perception; Texture
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1075396

Humans use multiple sources of sensory information to estimate environmental properties. For example, the eyes and hands both provide relevant information about an object's shape. The eyes estimate shape using binocular disparity, perspective projection, etc. The hands supply haptic shape information by means of tactile and proprioceptive cues. Combining information across cues can improve estimation of object properties but may come at a cost: loss of single-cue information. We report that single-cue information is indeed lost when cues from within the same sensory modality (disparity and texture gradients in vision) are combined, but not when different modalities (vision and haptics) are combined.