Prediction, attention, and unconscious processing in hierarchical auditory perception

Sébastien Paquette,Kathrin Rothermich,Geneviève Mignault Goulet

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00955

Abstract

Prediction, attention, and unconscious processing in hierarchical auditory perception

Highlights

Event-related potentials (ERPs) have been shown to reflect predictive activity in the brain
The P300, on the other hand, is highly dependent on attention and usually elicited 300–500 ms after a stimulus onset (Picton, 1992; Schwartze et al, 2011); it has been interpreted as a surprise response to an infrequent stimulus
Though connections have been made between the MMN, the P300, and predictive coding theory (Wacongne et al, 2011), it remains unclear how they support the hierarchical organization of prediction

Summary

Introduction

Event-related potentials (ERPs) have been shown to reflect predictive activity in the brain. The authors presented a set of auditory stimuli to participants while recording ERPs to unpredictable events (infrequent changes), the so-called oddball paradigm. The authors described the effects of attention and expectancy on error signal processing at different levels in the predictive hierarchy.

Results

Conclusion