Multisensory Perception

Overview

The overall aim of our research is to understand how the human brain combines expectations and sensory information to communicate.
Our ability to successfully communicate with other people is an essential skill in everyday life. Therefore, unravelling how the human brain is able to derive meaning from acoustic speech signals and to recognize our communication partner based on seeing a face represents an important scientific endeavour.
Speech recognition depends on both the clarity of the acoustic input and on what we expect to hear. For example, in noisy listening conditions, listeners of the identical speech input can differ in their perception of what was said. Similarly for face recognition, brain responses to faces depend on expectations and do not simply reflect the presented facial features.
These findings for speech and face recognition are compatible with the more general view that perception is an active process in which incoming sensory information is interpreted with respect to expectations. The neural mechanisms supporting such integration of sensory signals and expectations, however, remain to be identified. Conflicting theoretical and computational models have been suggested for how, when, and where expectations and new sensory information are combined. Our group is interested in understanding how the human brain combines expectations and sensory information to communicate and how individuals differ in their use of expectations.

Visit us on: http: //predcommlab.eu/

  • Staff

    • Multisensory perception
    • Speech recognition
    • Face recognition
    • Predictive processing

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    Garlichs, A. & Blank, H. (2024). Expectations Guide Predictive Eye Movements and Information Sampling During Face Recognition. iScience. 27:110920

    doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.110920

    Ufer, C. & Blank, H. (2024) Opposing serial effects of stimulus and choice in speech perception scale with context variability. iScience:110611

    doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.110611

    Garlichs, A. & Blank, H. (2024). Prediction error processing and sharpening of expected information across the face-processing hierarchy. Nature Communications, 15, 3407

    doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47749-9

    Becker, J., Korn, C.W. & Blank, H. (2024) Pupil diameter as an indicator of sound pair familiarity after statistically structured auditory sequence. Scientific Reports, 14, 8739

    doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-59302-1

    Becker, J., Viertler, M., Korn, C., & Blank, H., (2024) The pupil dilation response as an indicator of visual cue uncertainty and auditory outcome surprise. European Journal of Neuroscience, 1-16

    doi.org/10.1111/ejn.16306

    Blank, H., Alink, A., & Büchel, C. (2023). Multivariate functional neuroimaging analyses reveal that strength-dependent face expectations are represented in higher-level face-identity areas. Communications Biology, 6, 135

    doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-04508-8

    Blank, H. & Bayer, J. (2022). Functional imaging analyses reveal prototype and exemplar representations in a perceptual single-category task. Communications Biology, 5, 896 (2022)

    doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-03858-z

    Krumbiegel, J., Ufer, C., & Blank, H. (2022). Influence of voice properties on vowel perception depends on speaker context. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 152:820–834

    doi.org/10.1121/10.0013363

    Alink, A., & Blank, H. (2021). Can expectation suppression be explained by reduced attention to predictable stimuli? Neuroimage, 231

    doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117824

    Blank, H., Spangenberg, M., & Davis, M. (2018). Neural Prediction Errors Distinguish Perception and Misperception of Speech. The Journal of Neuroscience, . 38 (27) 6076-6089.

    https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3258-17.2018

    Blank, H. & Davis, M. (2016). Prediction errors but not sharpened signals simulate multivoxel fMRI patterns during speech perception, PLOS Biology, 14(11)

    http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002577

    •Blank, H., Kiebel, S. J. & von Kriegstein, K. (2015). How the human brain exchanges information across sensory modalities to recognize other people. Human Brain Mapping, 36(1), 324-39.

    http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hbm.22631

    Blank, H., Wieland, N., & von Kriegstein, K. (2014). A review on person-recognition and the brain: Merging evidence from patients and a brain imaging meta-analysis on healthy controls. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 47, 717-734.

    http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.10.022

    •Blank, H., Biele, G., Heekeren, H. & Philiastides, M. (2013). Temporal characteristics of the influence of punishment on perceptual decision making in the human brain. The Journal of Neuroscience, 33(9), 3939-3952.

    https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4151-12.2013

    •Blank, H. & von Kriegstein, K. (2013). Mechanisms of enhancing visual-speech recognition by prior auditory information. Neuroimage, 65, 109-118.

    http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.09.047

    •Blank, H., Anwander, A., & von Kriegstein, K. (2011). Direct structural connections between voice- and face-recognition areas. The Journal of Neuroscience, 31(36), 12906-12915.

    https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2091-11.2011

    • Project A19 im SFB 289
    • DFG Emmy Noether Programme Expectations in Communication, Blank 2021-2026
    • DFG Research network for the Interdisciplinary Study of Predictive Processing in Memory and Perception (PPiMP)
    • Research grant for young investigators by University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf 2020
    • Marie Curie IF fellowship 2017-2019

  • Please, get in touch in case you want to do an internship or Master thesis in our group.