Modelling stochastic resonance in humans: the influence of lapse rate

Abstract Adding noise to a sensory signal generally decreases human performance. However noise can improve performance too, due to a process called stochastic resonance (SR). This paradoxical effect may be exploited in psychophysical experiments, to provide additional insights into how the sensory system deals with noise. Here, I develop a model for stochastic resonance to study the influence of noise on human perception, in which the biological parameter of ‘lapse rate’ was included. I show that the inclusion of lapse rate allows for the occurrence of stochastic resonance in terms of the performance metric d′. At the same time, I show that high levels of lapse rate cause stochastic resonance to disappear. It is also shown that noise generated in the brain (i.e., internal noise) may obscure any effect of stochastic resonance in experimental settings. I further relate the model to a standard equivalent noise model, the linear amplifier model, and show that the lapse rate can function to scale the threshold versus noise (TvN) curve, similar to the efficiency parameter in equivalent noise (EN) models. Therefore, lapse rate provides a psychophysical explanation for reduced efficiency in EN paradigms. Furthermore, I note that ignoring lapse rate may lead to an overestimation of internal noise in equivalent noise paradigms. Overall, describing stochastic resonance in terms of signal detection theory, with the inclusion of lapse rate, may provide valuable new insights into how human performance depends on internal and external noise.