Dependency in multisensory integration: a copula-based analysis. (16th September 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Colonius, Hans; Diederich, Adele
• Is Part Of: Philosophical transactions. Volume 377:Number 2157(2019)
• Publication Date: 2019-09-16
• Subjects: copula -- statistical dependence -- multisensory integration -- Kendall's tau -- stochasticorder; Physical sciences -- Periodicals; Engineering -- Periodicals; Mathematics -- Periodicals; 500
• DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2018.0364
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1364-503X

Abstract

Abstract : The notion of copula has attracted attention from the field of contextuality and probability. A copula is a function that joins a multivariate distribution to its one-dimensional marginal distributions. Thereby, it allows characterizing the multivariate dependency separately from the specific choice of margins. Here, we demonstrate the use of copulas by investigating the structure of dependency between processing stages in a stochastic model of multisensory integration, which describes the effect of stimulation by several sensory modalities on human reaction times. We derive explicit terms for the covariance and Kendall's tau between the processing stages and point out the specific role played by two stochastic order relations, the usual stochastic order and the likelihood ratio order, in determining the sign of dependency. This article is part of the theme issue 'Contextuality and probability in quantum mechanics and beyond'.