The role of sequential effects in multisensory processing: A combined computational modelling and electrophysiology study

The availability of multiple senses is highly beneficial to control behaviour. Different senses like audition, vision, and touch not only increase the spectrum of perceivable signals but also provide redundant signals that, by combination, enable better estimates of external events and/or faster achievements of subjective goals. However, we do not yet fully understand the brain functions that guide the combination of multisensory signals. From the perspective of a computational modelling approach with behavioural data, a key challenge lies in the sequential dependency of behavioural responses (Otto & Mamassian, 2012). For example, the speed of a response to an auditory signal hugely depends on the sequence of signals that have been presented previously. Strikingly, the contribution of sequential dependencies has been largely neglected in studies investigating neuronal correlates of multisensory processing and may provide a major confounding factor.

The proposed PhD project aims to close this gap by systematically investigating the role of sequential dependency on multisensory processing. The project will follow an interdisciplinary approach. On a first level, we will use a computational modelling approach to analyse behavioural responses, which allows to quantify specific processing interactions with multisensory signals (Otto lab). On a second level, the mathematical modelling approach will then inform the analysis of EEG recordings to gain understanding of the underlying brain functions (Jentzsch lab; e.g., Saunders & Jentzsch, 2012).