Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:

Bayesian calibration of simultaneity in tactile temporal order judgment

This article has been updated

Abstract

Human judgment of the temporal order of two sensory signals is liable to change depending on our prior experiences. Previous studies have reported that signals presented at short intervals but in the same order as the most frequently repeated signal are perceived as occurring simultaneously. Here we report opposite perceptual changes that conform* to a Bayesian integration theory in judging the order of two stimuli delivered one to each hand.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Two opposing predictions in recalibrating temporal order judgments.
Figure 2: Shifts of the point of simultaneity in judgments of tactile temporal order, favoring the prediction from Bayesian integration.
Figure 3: Shifts of the point of simultaneity in judgments of audiovisual temporal order.

Similar content being viewed by others

Change history

  • 07 June 2006

    changed confirm to conform

Notes

  1. *NOTE: In the version of this article initially published online, the final line of the abstract contained an error. This line should say ‘conform’ rather than ‘confirm’. The error has been corrected for all versions of the article.

References

  1. Pöppel, E. Trends Cogn. Sci. 1, 56–61 (1997).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Hirsh, I.J. & Sherrick, C.E., Jr. J. Exp. Psychol. 62, 423–432 (1961).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Yamamoto, S. & Kitazawa, S. Nat. Neurosci. 4, 759–765 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Okada, M. & Kashino, M. Neuroreport 14, 261–264 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Bennett, R.G. & Westheimer, G. Vision Res. 25, 565–569 (1985).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Fujisaki, W., Shimojo, S., Kashino, M. & Nishida, S. Nat. Neurosci. 7, 773–778 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Körding, K.P., Ku, S.P. & Wolpert, D.M. J. Neurophysiol. 92, 3161–3165 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Körding, K.P. & Wolpert, D.M. Nature 427, 244–247 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Kersten, D., Mamassian, P. & Yuille, A. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 55, 271–304 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Guo, K. et al. Vision Res. 44, 2349–2358 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Miyazaki, M., Nozaki, D. & Nakajima, Y. J. Neurophysiol. 94, 395–399 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Sugita, Y. & Suzuki, Y. Nature 421, 911 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The study was partly supported by the Human Frontier Science Program and Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) (#15200031, #18200024) to S.K. and by Special Coordination Funds for Promoting Science and Technology to S.Y.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

M.M. designed and conducted the experiments with tactile stimuli and developed Bayesian models. S.Y. conducted the experiments with audiovisual stimuli. S.U. helped in the experiments with tactile stimuli. S.K. supervised the project and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shigeru Kitazawa.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

Bayesian calibration of simultaneity in tactile temporal order judgment under two additional conditions. (PDF 83 kb)

Supplementary Methods (PDF 81 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Miyazaki, M., Yamamoto, S., Uchida, S. et al. Bayesian calibration of simultaneity in tactile temporal order judgment. Nat Neurosci 9, 875–877 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1712

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1712

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing