paper: stochastic resonance in sensory perception

[Ning Qian]

Dear colleagues,

The following short paper (0.08 MB) is available online at:

http://brahms.cpmc.columbia.edu/publications/sr.ps.gz

A model for stochastic resonance-type behavior in sensory perception

Yunfan Gong, Nestor Matthews, and Ning Qian
Physical Review E, 2002 (in press). 

Abstract

Recently it was found that noise could help improve human detection of
sensory stimuli via stochastic resonance-type behavior. Specifically,
the ability of an individual to detect a weak tactile stimulus could
be enhanced by adding a certain amount of noise. Here we propose, from
the perspective of classic signal detection theory, a simple and
general model to elucidate the mechanism underlying this novel
phenomenon. We demonstrate that noise-mediated enhancements and
decrements in human sensation can be well reproduced by our model. The
predicted upper bound of the performance improvement by adding noise
is also consistent with the experimental data. We suggest additional
experiments to further test the model.


Best regards,

Ning Qian

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http://brahms.cpmc.columbia.edu  Ning Qian, Ph. D.
qian at brahms.cpmc.columbia.edu    Associate Professor
nq6 at columbia.edu                 Ctr. Neurobiology & Behavior
                                 Columbia University
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