Dissociating Contributions of Expectation and Repetition Suppression Using High-Field fMRI and MEG.

Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre 

To make sense of the soundscape of our surroundings, listeners continuously use contextual information to form prediction about what is likely to occur next whilst suppressing repeated sensations. Although both prediction (Tang et al., 2021) and repetition suppression (Todorovic & de Lange, 2012) aid neural sound processing, differentiating between the two remains challenging. Events that elicit surprise often coincides with changes in low-level attributes, triggering a release form adaptation. Despite their co-occurrence, expectations may modulate neural responses beyond what can be explained by repetition suppression alone.

Here, we explore influences from past, present and inferences towards the future in shaping auditory perception. We present probabilistically sampled sequences of pure tones and employ ultra-high-field (7T) functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine layer-specific effects of low-level tuning, expectations, and repetition suppression. Complimentary, we use magnetoencephalography to decern the temporal dynamics of the repetition suppression – prediction interplay.