The Role of Conflict Processing in Multisensory Perception: Spatial and Temporal Dimensions
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Soto Faraco, Salvador
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Soto Faraco, Salvador
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86 p.
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Marly Pèlach, A. The Role of Conflict Processing in Multisensory Perception: Spatial and Temporal Dimensions. Universitat Pompeu Fabra; 2026. handle: https://hdl.handle.net/10803/697296
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Doctoral program
Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Doctorat en Tecnologies de la Informació i les Comunicacions
Abstract
Al igual que muchos otros animales, los seres humanos poseen una amplia variedad de sistemas sensoriales que recogen información de distinto tipo sobre los objetos y eventos del entorno. Para construir representaciones multisensoriales coherentes, el cerebro debe inferir si las diferentes señales sensoriales provienen de una fuente común y, por tanto, deben integrarse, o si surgen de fuentes separadas y deben segregarse y procesarse de manera independiente. Este es un proceso complejo ya que los entornos cotidianos contienen muchas señales simultáneas que, junto con el ruido sensorial inherente, suelen dar lugar a situaciones intermodales ambiguas, en las que las señales no son del todo congruentes ni claramente incongruentes. Ello conduce a una incertidumbre entre las posibles interpretaciones perceptivas de integración y segregación. Esta tesis examina si dicha ambigüedad perceptiva activa mecanismos cerebrales de conflicto típicamente asociados al control cognitivo. Basándose en los marcos teóricos de la inferencia causal bayesiana y de la monitorización del conflicto, se llevaron a cabo dos estudios prerregistrados, con paradigmas de localización espacial y de ritmo temporal, que combinaron medidas conductuales y electroencefalográficas en cuatro experimentos con amplias muestras de participantes. En conjunto, los resultados mostraron que la actividad theta fronto-medial, un marcador neural de conflicto, alcanzó su punto máximo ante disparidades audiovisuales intermedias, interpretándose como un reflejo de la competencia entre modelos causales. Además, el curso temporal de la actividad theta coincidió con la dinámica de resolución del conflicto, emergiendo antes cuando la ambigüedad se resolvía con mayor rapidez. Estos hallazgos sugieren que el conflicto perceptivo involucra mecanismos neurales similares a los implicados en el conflicto cognitivo, revelando principios computacionales compartidos entre percepción y cognición.
Humans, like many other animals, have a wide range of sensory systems that gather cues of different kinds about objects and events in the environment. To form coherent multisensory representations, the brain must infer whether sensory cues of different modalities originate from a common source and should therefore be integrated, or else they arise from separate sources and should be segregated and processed independently. This is a complex process because everyday environments contain a multitude of simultaneous cues that, together with inherent sensory noise, often give rise to ambiguous cross-modal events that are neither fully congruent nor clearly incongruent. This leads to uncertainty between competing perceptual interpretations of integration and segregation. This thesis examines whether such perceptual ambiguity engages conflict brain mechanisms typically associated with cognitive control. Grounded in Bayesian causal inference and the conflict monitoring frameworks, two preregistered studies using spatial localization and temporal rate paradigms combined behavioural and electroencephalographic measures in four experiments with large participant samples. Collectively, the results of these experiments showed that frontal-midline theta activity, a neural marker of conflict, peaked at intermediate audiovisual disparities, interpreted as reflecting competition between causal models. Moreover, the time course of the frontal-midline theta activity corresponded to the dynamics of conflict resolution, emerging earlier when ambiguity was resolved more quickly. These findings suggest that perceptual conflict engages neural mechanisms similar to those involved in cognitive conflict, revealing shared computational principles across perception and cognition.
Humans, like many other animals, have a wide range of sensory systems that gather cues of different kinds about objects and events in the environment. To form coherent multisensory representations, the brain must infer whether sensory cues of different modalities originate from a common source and should therefore be integrated, or else they arise from separate sources and should be segregated and processed independently. This is a complex process because everyday environments contain a multitude of simultaneous cues that, together with inherent sensory noise, often give rise to ambiguous cross-modal events that are neither fully congruent nor clearly incongruent. This leads to uncertainty between competing perceptual interpretations of integration and segregation. This thesis examines whether such perceptual ambiguity engages conflict brain mechanisms typically associated with cognitive control. Grounded in Bayesian causal inference and the conflict monitoring frameworks, two preregistered studies using spatial localization and temporal rate paradigms combined behavioural and electroencephalographic measures in four experiments with large participant samples. Collectively, the results of these experiments showed that frontal-midline theta activity, a neural marker of conflict, peaked at intermediate audiovisual disparities, interpreted as reflecting competition between causal models. Moreover, the time course of the frontal-midline theta activity corresponded to the dynamics of conflict resolution, emerging earlier when ambiguity was resolved more quickly. These findings suggest that perceptual conflict engages neural mechanisms similar to those involved in cognitive conflict, revealing shared computational principles across perception and cognition.
Keywords
Percepció, Perception, Percepción, Multisensorial, Multisensory, Multisensorial, Electroencefalografia, Electroencephalography, Electroencefalografía, EEG, EEG, EEG, Control cognitiu, Cognitive control, Control cognitivo, Monitorització del conflicte, Conflict monitoring, Monitorización del conflicto, Inferència causal bayesiana, Bayesian causal inference, Inferencia causal bayesiana, Onda theta, Theta power, Onda theta, Temps de reacció, Reaction Time, Tiempo de reacción, RT, RT, RT, Ventrilòquia, Ventriloquist illusion, Ventriloquía, Percepció del ritme, Rate perception, Percepción del ritmo
Subjects
616.8 - Neurology. Neuropathology. Nervous system
Publisher
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
