Human perception is based on mathematically optimal principles, but the brain implements those principles imperfectly, suggests new research by Elina Stengård and Ronald van den Berg of the University of Uppsala, Sweden. They present their findings in PLOS Computational Biology. The human brain uses imprecise sensory inputs to determine truths about the surrounding environment. Previous research has suggested that human perception is “Bayesian,” meaning that the brain accounts for uncertainty of sensory observations in a mathematically optimal way. However, some of those studies have been criticized mathematically, and other research suggests…