While perceptual learning increases objective sensitivity, the effects on the constant interaction of the process of perception and its metacognitive evaluation have been rarely investigated. Visual perception has been described as a process of probabilistic inference featuring metacognitive evaluations of choice certainty. For visual motion perception in healthy, naive human subjects here we s...

•Cortisol and auditory perception in N = 68 human adults at 5 times of day•Higher momentary cortisol levels predicted better pitch discrimination•This glucocorticoid effect held under a set statistical control models•Paves way for studies on neuroendocrinological constraints sensation Slow neurobiological rhythms, such as the circadian secretion (GC) hormones, modulate variety body functions. W...