title: Bayesian networks and information theory for audio-visual perception modeling.
abstract: Thanks to their different senses, human observers acquire multiple information coming from their environment. Complex cross-modal interactions occur during this perceptual process. This article proposes a framework to analyze and model these interactions through a rigorous and systematic data-driven process. This requires considering the general relationships between the physical events or factors involved in the process, not only in quantitative terms, but also in term of the influence of one factor on another. We use tools from information theory and probabilistic reasoning to derive relationships between the random variables of interest, where the central notion is that of conditional independence. Using mutual information analysis to guide the model elicitation process, a probabilistic causal model encoded as a Bayesian network is obtained. We exemplify the method by using data collected in an audio-visual localization task for human subjects, and we show that it yields a well-motivated model with good predictive ability. The model elicitation process offers new prospects for the investigation of the cognitive mechanisms of multisensory perception.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Movement Sciences, CNRS & Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France. patricia.besson@univmed.fr
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Besson
authors.forename: Jonas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Richiardi
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bourdin
authors.forename: Lionel
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bringoux
authors.forename: Daniel R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Mestre
authors.forename: Jean-Louis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Vercher
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D007257:Information Theory; D008959:Models, Neurological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000592:standards; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*