Citation

Kuhns AB, Dombert PL, Mengotti P, Fink GR, Vossel S. J. Neurosci. 2017; 37(21): 5334-5344.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, 50931 Cologne, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Society for Neuroscience)

DOI

10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3255-16.2017

PMID

28450541

Abstract

Predictions about upcoming events influence how we perceive and respond to our environment. There is increasing evidence that predictions may be generated based upon previous observations following Bayesian principles, but little is known about the underlying cortical mechanisms and their specificity for different cognitive subsystems. The present study aimed at identifying common and distinct neural signatures of predictive processing in the spatial attentional and motor intentional systems. Twenty-three female and male healthy human volunteers performed two probabilistic cueing tasks with either spatial or motor cues while lying in the fMRI scanner. In these tasks, the percentage of cue validity changed unpredictably over time. Trial-wise estimates of cue predictability were derived from a Bayesian observer model of behavioral responses. These estimates were included as parametric regressors for analyzing the BOLD time series. Parametric effects of cue predictability in valid and invalid trials were considered to reflect belief updating by precision-weighted prediction errors. The brain areas exhibiting predictability-dependent effects dissociated between the spatial attention and motor intention task, with the right temporoparietal cortex being involved during spatial attention and the left angular gyrus and anterior cingulate cortex during motor intention. Connectivity analyses revealed that all three areas showed predictability-dependent coupling with the right hippocampus. These results suggest that precision-weighted prediction errors of stimulus locations and motor responses are encoded in distinct brain regions, but that crosstalk with the hippocampus may be necessary to integrate new trial-wise outcomes in both cognitive systems.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTThe brain is apt to infer the environments' statistical structure and strongly responds to expectancy violations. In the spatial attentional domain, it has been shown that parts of the attentional networks are sensitive to the predictability of stimuli. It remains unknown, however, if these effects are ubiquitous or if they are specific for different cognitive systems. The present study compared the influence of model-derived cue predictability on brain activity in the spatial attentional and motor intentional system. We identified areas with distinct predictability-dependent activation for spatial attention and motor intention, but also common connectivity changes of these regions with the hippocampus. These findings provide novel insights into the generality and specificity of predictive processing signatures in the human brain.

Copyright © 2017 the authors.

Language: en