Expectation and surprise determine neural population responses in the ventral visual stream

Visual cortex is traditionally viewed as a hierarchy of neural feature detectors, with neural population responses being driven by bottom-up stimulus features. Conversely, "predictive coding" models propose that each stage of the visual hierarchy harbors two computationally distinct classe...

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Veröffentlicht in:The Journal of neuroscience Jg. 30; H. 49; S. 16601
Hauptverfasser: Egner, Tobias, Monti, Jim M, Summerfield, Christopher
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: United States 08.12.2010
Schlagworte:
Adult
Analysis of Variance
Brain Mapping
Computer Simulation
Female
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Male
Models, Neurological
Oxygen - blood
Photic Stimulation - methods
Predictive Value of Tests
Reaction Time - physiology
Sensory Receptor Cells - physiology
Signal Detection, Psychological - physiology
Visual Cortex - blood supply
Visual Cortex - cytology
Visual Cortex - physiology
Visual Pathways - blood supply
Visual Pathways - physiology
Visual Perception - physiology
Young Adult
ISSN:1529-2401, 1529-2401
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Zusammenfassung:Visual cortex is traditionally viewed as a hierarchy of neural feature detectors, with neural population responses being driven by bottom-up stimulus features. Conversely, "predictive coding" models propose that each stage of the visual hierarchy harbors two computationally distinct classes of processing unit: representational units that encode the conditional probability of a stimulus and provide predictions to the next lower level; and error units that encode the mismatch between predictions and bottom-up evidence, and forward prediction error to the next higher level. Predictive coding therefore suggests that neural population responses in category-selective visual regions, like the fusiform face area (FFA), reflect a summation of activity related to prediction ("face expectation") and prediction error ("face surprise"), rather than a homogenous feature detection response. We tested the rival hypotheses of the feature detection and predictive coding models by collecting functional magnetic resonance imaging data from the FFA while independently varying both stimulus features (faces vs houses) and subjects' perceptual expectations regarding those features (low vs medium vs high face expectation). The effects of stimulus and expectation factors interacted, whereby FFA activity elicited by face and house stimuli was indistinguishable under high face expectation and maximally differentiated under low face expectation. Using computational modeling, we show that these data can be explained by predictive coding but not by feature detection models, even when the latter are augmented with attentional mechanisms. Thus, population responses in the ventral visual stream appear to be determined by feature expectation and surprise rather than by stimulus features per se.
Bibliographie:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:1529-2401
1529-2401
DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2770-10.2010