Abstract
Sensory attenuation refers to the decreased intensity of a sensory percept when a sensation is self‐generated compared with when it is externally triggered. However, the underlying brain regions and network interactions that give rise to this phenomenon remain to be determined. To address this issue, we recorded magnetoencephalographic (MEG) data from 35 healthy controls during an auditory task in which pure tones were either elicited through a button press or passively presented. We analyzed the auditory M100 at sensor‐ and source‐level and identified movement‐related magnetic fields (MRMFs). Regression analyses were used to further identify brain regions that contributed significantly to sensory attenuation, followed by a dynamic causal modeling (DCM) approach to explore network interactions between generators. Attenuation of the M100 was pronounced in right Heschl's gyrus (HES), superior temporal cortex (ST), thalamus, rolandic operculum (ROL), precuneus and inferior parietal cortex (IPL). Regression analyses showed that right postcentral gyrus (PoCG) and left precentral gyrus (PreCG) predicted M100 sensory attenuation. In addition, DCM results indicated that auditory sensory attenuation involved bi‐directional information flow between thalamus, IPL, and auditory cortex. In summary, our data show that sensory attenuation is mediated by bottom‐up and top‐down information flow in a thalamocortical network, providing support for the role of predictive processing in sensory‐motor system.
Highlights
An important goal of organisms is to distinguish between sensory information originating from the external environment versus sensations caused by the organism's own actions (Schafer & Marcus, 1973; von Holst & Mittelstaedt, 1950)
Attenuation of the M100 was pronounced in right Heschl's gyrus (HES), superior temporal cortex (ST), thalamus, rolandic operculum (ROL), precuneus and inferior parietal cortex (IPL)
Our results provide novel evidence to suggest that sensory attenuation involved a distributed network in cortical as well as subcortical regions
Summary
An important goal of organisms is to distinguish between sensory information originating from the external environment versus sensations caused by the organism's own actions (Schafer & Marcus, 1973; von Holst & Mittelstaedt, 1950). One example to illustrate this phenomenon is sensory attenuation whereby sensations that are selfgenerated are decreased in intensity compared with externallygenerated stimuli (von Holst & Mittelstaedt, 1950). The first framework to account for sensory attenuation was proposed by Von Holst and Mittelstaedt (1950) who suggested that an efference copy of the motor command is used to predict the. Forthcoming sensory outcome, followed by a comparison with the afferent information (corollary discharge) (Sperry, 1950). From this perspective, sensory attenuation occurs if the predicted sensory feedback matches the incoming sensory stimulus. In electro/magnetoencephalographical (EEG/MEG) recordings, auditory sensory attenuation is characterized by the suppression of the N/M100 event-related potential/field (ERP/ERF) during self-generated speech or tones (Cao, Thut, & Gross, 2017; Heinks-Maldonado, Nagarajan, & Houde, 2006; Martikainen, Kaneko, & Hari, 2004). Impaired sensory attenuation has been linked to psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia (ScZ) (Ford et al, 2001; Ford, Gray, Faustman, Roach, & Mathalon, 2007; Whitford et al, 2017), to account for disturbances in the sense of agency that could potentially underlie the emergence of hallucinations and delusions (Ford & Mathalon, 2005)
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