Topic: noisy sensory signals

To survive, organisms must make rapid inferences about their surroundings. For example, to successfully escape approaching predators, prey must estimate the direction of approach from noisy stimuli [1]. Such rapid inferences are particularly challenging because there is little time to gather sensory information, yet the precision of inference is critical for survival. Due to evolutionary pressures, nervous systems likely evolved effective computational strategies that enable accurate inferences under strong time limitations. Here, we aim to understand the principles underlying such rapid infe