We are bombarded constantly with physical stimuli. Myriad agents reflect light to the eyes, transmit sounds into the ears, waft aromas through the nose, release flavours onto the tongue, and exert pressures against the skin.  Specialized sensory receptors transform these physical stimuli into patterns of electrical impulses that travel rapidly along chains of nerve fibers to reach the brain - a sort of imprecise neural Morse code.  The brain then somehow decodes these noisy neural impulse patterns to construct a perception of the world.  But how?  I will propose that the brain uses probabilistic reasoning (Bayesian inference) to generate perceptual best guesses, optimally combining the imprecise information carried by neural impulses with relevant knowledge of the world.  I will show that Bayesian inference explains not only reliable sensory experiences, but also sensory illusions.

Dan Goldreich received a B.S. in physics from the University of California, San Diego (1986), and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of California, San Francisco (1994), with postdoctoral training in neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh (1994-1997). Prior to joining McMaster, he was a tenured professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA (1997-2005).  His research concerns tactile perceptual consquences of cortical plasticity following sensory deprivation.

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