Neural markers of predictive coding under perceptual uncertainty revealed with Hierarchical Frequency Tagging

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Cite this article as: eLife 2017;6:e22749 doi: 10.7554/eLife.22749

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Abstract

There is a growing understanding that both top-down and bottom-up signals underlie perception. But it is not known how these signals integrate with each other and how this depends on the perceived stimuli's predictability. 'Predictive coding' theories describe this integration in terms of how well top-down predictions fit with bottom-up sensory input. Identifying neural markers for such signal integration is therefore essential for the study of perception and predictive coding theories. To achieve this, we combined EEG methods that preferentially tag different levels in the visual hierarchy. Importantly, we examined intermodulation components as a measure of integration between these signals. Our results link the different signals to core aspects of predictive coding, and suggest that top-down predictions indeed integrate with bottom-up signals in a manner that is modulated by the predictability of the sensory input, providing evidence for predictive coding and opening new avenues to studying such interactions in perception.

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Author details

Noam Gordon

Cognition and Philosophy Lab, Philosophy Department, Monash University, Clayton, Australia

For correspondence
noam.gordon@monash.edu

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-4438-7449
Roger Koenig-Robert

School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-8767-3552
Naotsugu Tsuchiya

Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences, Monash University, Clayton, Australia

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Jeroen van Boxtel

Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences, Monash University, Clayton, Australia

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-2643-0474
Jakob Hohwy

Cognition and Philosophy Lab, Philosophy Department, Monash University, Clayton, Australia

For correspondence
jakob.hohwy@monash.edu

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-3906-3060

Funding

Australian Research Council (DP130100194)

Roger Koenig-Robert
Naotsugu Tsuchiya

Australian Research Council (FT120100619)

Naotsugu Tsuchiya

Australian Research Council (FT100100322)

Jakob Hohwy

Australian Research Council (DP160102770)

Jakob Hohwy

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Human subjects: Participants gave their written consent to participate in the experiment. Experimental procedures were approved by the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee (CF12/2542 - 2012001375)

Reviewing Editor

Klaas Enno Stephan, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Publication history

Received: October 27, 2016
Accepted: February 26, 2017
Accepted Manuscript published: February 28, 2017 (version 1)
Version of Record published: March 21, 2017 (version 2)

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.