Information-Theoretic Evidence for Predictive Coding in the Face-Processing System

Predictive coding suggests that the brain infers the causes of its sensations by combining sensory evidence with internal predictions based on available prior knowledge. However, the neurophysiological correlates of (pre)activated prior knowledge serving these predictions are still unknown. Based on...

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Veröffentlicht in:The Journal of neuroscience Jg. 37; H. 34; S. 8273
Hauptverfasser: Brodski-Guerniero, Alla, Paasch, Georg-Friedrich, Wollstadt, Patricia, Özdemir, Ipek, Lizier, Joseph T, Wibral, Michael
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: United States 23.08.2017
Schlagworte:
Adult
Brain - physiology
Brain Waves - physiology
Facial Recognition - physiology
Female
Forecasting
Humans
Magnetoencephalography - methods
Male
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Photic Stimulation - methods
Young Adult
Mooney
face perception
prediction
information theory
predictive coding
information storage
ISSN:1529-2401, 1529-2401
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Zusammenfassung:Predictive coding suggests that the brain infers the causes of its sensations by combining sensory evidence with internal predictions based on available prior knowledge. However, the neurophysiological correlates of (pre)activated prior knowledge serving these predictions are still unknown. Based on the idea that such preactivated prior knowledge must be maintained until needed, we measured the amount of maintained information in neural signals via the active information storage (AIS) measure. AIS was calculated on whole-brain beamformer-reconstructed source time courses from MEG recordings of 52 human subjects during the baseline of a Mooney face/house detection task. Preactivation of prior knowledge for faces showed as α-band-related and β-band-related AIS increases in content-specific areas; these AIS increases were behaviorally relevant in the brain's fusiform face area. Further, AIS allowed decoding of the cued category on a trial-by-trial basis. Our results support accounts indicating that activated prior knowledge and the corresponding predictions are signaled in low-frequency activity (<30 Hz). Our perception is not only determined by the information our eyes/retina and other sensory organs receive from the outside world, but strongly depends also on information already present in our brains, such as prior knowledge about specific situations or objects. A currently popular theory in neuroscience, predictive coding theory, suggests that this prior knowledge is used by the brain to form internal predictions about upcoming sensory information. However, neurophysiological evidence for this hypothesis is rare, mostly because this kind of evidence requires strong a priori assumptions about the specific predictions the brain makes and the brain areas involved. Using a novel, assumption-free approach, we find that face-related prior knowledge and the derived predictions are represented in low-frequency brain activity.
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ISSN:1529-2401
1529-2401
DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0614-17.2017