Predictability of what or where reduces brain activity, but a bottleneck occurs when both are predictable

Abstract

Detecting regularities in the sensory environment licenses predictions that enable adaptive behaviour. However, it is unclear whether predictions about object category, location, or both dimensions are mediated by overlapping systems, and relatedly, whether constructing predictions about both category and location is associated with processing bottlenecks. To examine this issue, in an fMRI study, we presented participants with image-series in which non-deterministic transition probabilities enabled predictions about either the location of the next image, its semantic category, both dimensions, or neither (the latter forming a "no-regularity" random baseline condition). Speaking to a common system, all three predictable conditions resulted in reduced BOLD activity in four clusters: left rostral anterior cingulate cortex; bilateral putamen, caudate and thalamus; right precentral gyrus, and left visual cortex. Pointing to a processing bottleneck, in some regions, a significant interaction between the two factors was found whereby category-predictable series were associated with lower activity -but only when location regularity was absent. Finally, category regularity decreased activation in areas of the ventral visual stream and semantic areas of lateral temporal cortex, and location regularity decreased activation in a dorsal fronto-parietal cluster, long implicated in the endogenous control of spatial attention. Our findings confirm and expand a role for dACC/dmPFC and striatum in monitoring or responding to uncertainty in the environment and point to a limited capacity bottleneck when multiple predictions are concurrently licensed.

Visual cortex signals a mismatch between regularity of auditory and visual streams

“…Later work (Davis & Hasson, 2016) corroborated this conclusion but further suggested that processing regularity in independent dimensions is not modular (where "processing" holistically refers to the updating of statistical information, generation of predictions and prediction-error terms). Specifically, that work examined neural responses to stimuli where, over a stimulus series, the location of a subsequent visual image or its semantic category were either predictable or not.…”

“…For deterministic sequential information, individuals are able to track two independent information streams without observable behavioral costs (e.g., Mayr, 1996). Neuroimaging studies show that individuals spontaneously track statistical features of different stimulus dimensions (e.g., category and location or shape and color; Aizenstein et al, 2004;Davis & Hasson, 2016). It is unclear, however, whether there are brain systems that holistically integrate statistical information across different modalities when exposed to multimodal inputs.…”

Cortico-Striatal-Thalamic Loop Circuits of the Salience Network: A Central Pathway in Psychiatric Disease and Treatment

“…For one, the AI, dACC and dlPFC activate synchronously in response to uncertainty in the environment; these regions overlap with areas implicated in negative mood states (Feinstein et al, 2006; Naqvi and Bechara, 2009; Davis and Hasson, 2016). The dACC and AI activate together during decision-making; co-activation has been shown to increase with task difficulty and stimulus ambiguity.…”

Local expectation violations result in global activity gain in primary visual cortex

“…This question is particularly interesting given that the higher-order regions in frontal cortex containing spatial and feature information may be largely separate5. It is currently unknown whether these regions operate independently, or whether they can synergistically induce top-down modulations in early visual cortex that are both spatially and feature specific67. That is, whether feature-based expectation can affect processing of stimuli at the location in which the stimulus is expected to occur, without affecting processing of stimuli presented elsewhere in the visual field.…”