Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Research
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Seeing the Big Picture – Hierarchy of Automatic Prediction in Temporal and Frontal Cortex
According to the predictive-coding framework the brain encodes regularities in the environment which are in turn used for predicting the input, and signaling deviations from this prediction. The mismatch response is taken as a paradigmatic example for such ‘prediction error’ signals produced automatically in response to unattended deviations from regularity. However, even for the simplest input, multiple predictions, sometimes contradicting, may be formed. I will discuss EEG and intracranial (ECOG) studies in humans, using auditory stimuli, and argue that temporal (auditory) and frontal cortices are both involved in the mismatch response, yet they reflect different predictions. Specifically, responses in the auditory cortex are dimension-specific and reflect local probabilities on a short temporal scale, whereas frontal cortices are dimension-independent and reflect the global statistics of the input. Finally, I will show evidence that predictions are reflected not only in prediction-error signals, but also in anticipatory, proactive modulation of broadband high frequency local field potentials.
5th BARCELONA LECTURE SERIES
This series of lectures, organized by several research groups from the Faculty of Psychology and the Institute of Neurosciences (UBNeuro) annually brings scientists of great renown to our faculty so that a series of exciting lectures are made freely available to you. This year’s invited speakers include Karl Gegenfurtner, Patrick Haggard, Marc Schönwiesner, Maria Chait, Marco Cicchini and Rafael Malach. In addition, with the objective of stimulating an atmosphere of scientific discussion and collaboration, this year the series will also include talks by local in-house researchers, who will give an overview of their ongoing research carried out at the Faculty of Psychology. Please come and enjoy these inspiring lectures, and the opportunity to discuss with great scientists in a friendly and relaxed setting!
Iria SanMiguel (Coordinator BLS 2016/17)