Neural implementation of hierarchical Bayesian inference by importance sampling

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

58 Scopus citations

Abstract

The goal of perception is to infer the hidden states in the hierarchical process by which sensory data are generated. Human behavior is consistent with the optimal statistical solution to this problem in many tasks, including cue combination and orientation detection. Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying this behavior is of particular importance, since probabilistic computations are notoriously challenging. Here we propose a simple mechanism for Bayesian inference which involves averaging over a few feature detection neurons which fire at a rate determined by their similarity to a sensory stimulus. This mechanism is based on a Monte Carlo method known as importance sampling, commonly used in computer science and statistics. Moreover, a simple extension to recursive importance sampling can be used to perform hierarchical Bayesian inference. We identify a scheme for implementing importance sampling with spiking neurons, and show that this scheme can account for human behavior in cue combination and the oblique effect.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationAdvances in Neural Information Processing Systems 22 - Proceedings of the 2009 Conference
PublisherNeural Information Processing Systems
Pages1669-1677
Number of pages9
ISBN (Print)9781615679119
StatePublished - 2009
Externally publishedYes
Event23rd Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, NIPS 2009 - Vancouver, BC, Canada
Duration: Dec 7 2009Dec 10 2009

Publication series

NameAdvances in Neural Information Processing Systems 22 - Proceedings of the 2009 Conference

Other

Other23rd Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, NIPS 2009
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityVancouver, BC
Period12/7/0912/10/09

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Information Systems

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