Predicting faces and houses: Category-specific visual action-effect prediction modulates late stages of sensory processing

Abstract

Our perception is fundamentally influenced by the way that we interact with the world. In particular, sensory events that are consistent with our planned actions are attenuated, both in terms of their phenomenology, and their neural response. Previous research in this domain has focused on simple-featured stimuli such as Gabor patches or sine wave tones, with attenuation normally occurring at early stages of sensory processing. In the current study we investigated this phenomenon using more ecologically valid stimuli that would likely involve higher-level visual predictions. More specifically, we trained participants to associate different actions with the presentation of a face or a house. By recording ERPs we could utilise the modularity of face processing to determine the locus of sensory attenuation for these high-level stimuli, as well as identify content-specific brain activity related to the prediction itself. In contrast to previous studies using low-level stimuli, we observed attenuation at later stages of visual processing, suggesting that higher-level predictions result in high-level prediction errors. We additionally observed significant differences over visual brain regions during action preparation dependent on whether participants were predicting to see a house or a face, perhaps reflecting preactivation of the predicted action effects. Furthermore, the degree to which participants showed evidence of preactivation, was correlated with the magnitude of their P2 attenuation. Taken together, these findings provide new insight into motor prediction and its influence on perception.