Cortical representation of sensory predictions investigated with multivariate pattern analysis and high-field fMRI

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Bianca van Kemenade
• Subject Area: Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
• Term: from 2019 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 423633537

Understanding the relationship between one’s own action and its sensory outcome is crucial to establish correct and meaningful interactions with the external world. This is achieved by generating predictions about the sensory consequences of our own actions based on a copy of the motor command, the so called efference copy. Such predictions often lead to reduced neural processing compared to externally generated stimuli, although sometimes enhancement is observed. Despite increasing knowledge about action-based predictive mechanisms and their neural correlates, some important questions remain to be resolved. In three work packages involving 3T and 7T fMRI experiments, the proposed project will answer questions regarding where and how action-based predictions are generated, and how these predictions impact perception. First of all, it is still unclear where action-based predictions originate in the first place. Using multivariate pattern analysis, brain areas carrying information regarding the identity of the upcoming stimulus will be identified in the first work package, and similarities and differences with predictions about externally generated stimuli will be studied. In the second work package, stimulus characteristics will be manipulated to investigate which factors lead to behavioural and neural suppression and which to enhancement. This work package will also answer the question how spatially precise these predictions are. In the third work package, the experiments from the first two work packages will be optimised for high-field fMRI in a 7T MRI scanner, which allows for segmentation of cortical layers due to its superior spatial resolution. This will allow to identify which aspects of action-based predictive mechanisms are based on bottom-up processes and which on top-down processes, as these processes involve different cortical layers. Such knowledge will provide important insight into the underlying neural mechanisms of action-based predictive processing. All in all, the proposed project aims to provide a comprehensive framework of how we generate predictions about sensory action consequences up to the level of cortical layers of the human brain.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Host: Professor Lars Muckli, Ph.D.