Auditory expectation violations elicit distinct laminar responses in temporal cortex

Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre 

The ability of the brain to anticipate incoming sensory information is crucial for navigating our dynamic environments, in which we are often confronted with incomplete and noisy inputs. In auditory environments, actively predicting what we will hear next facilitates auditory stream segregation and understanding speech in noise [6,8,9], illustrating the relevance of predictive processing in auditory perception. In predictive coding (PC), it is postulated that the brain actively infers underlying probable causes of sensory input. This process of inference occurs through hierarchical exchange of information across brain areas [2,5]. Within this framework, feedforward and feedback streams perform specialized roles, in which predictions are fed back and prediction-errors (the mismatch between predictions and sensory input) are fed forward to higher-order areas [4].

Here, we probe violations of expectations by presenting sound sequences that are either predictable, deviate from predictions or omit part of the sequence while measuring laminar gradient echo blood oxygenation level-dependent (GE-BOLD) responses using high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).