Abstract
The term “predictive brain” depicts one of the most relevant concepts in cognitive neuroscience which emphasizes the importance of “looking into the future”, namely prediction, preparation, anticipation, prospection or expectations in various cognitive domains. Analogously, it has been suggested that predictive processing represents one of the fundamental principles of neural computations and that errors of prediction may be crucial for driving neural and cognitive processes as well as behavior. This review discusses research areas which have recognized the importance of prediction and introduces the relevant terminology and leading theories in the field in an attempt to abstract some generative mechanisms of predictive processing. Furthermore, we discuss the process of testing the validity of postulated expectations by matching these to the realized events and compare the subsequent processing of events which confirm to those which violate the initial predictions. We conclude by suggesting that, although a lot is known about this type of processing, there are still many open issues which need to be resolved before a unified theory of predictive processing can be postulated with regard to both cognitive and neural functioning.
Highlights
In 1637 the Art of Worldly Wisdom taught us that “even knowledge has to be in the fashion” (Gracian, 1991)
We discuss the process of testing the validity of postulated expectations by matching these to the realized events and compare the subsequent processing of events which confirm to those which violate the initial predictions.We conclude by suggesting that, a lot is known about this type of processing, there are still many open issues which need to be resolved before a unified theory of predictive processing can be postulated with regard to both cognitive and neural functioning
Yet, many researchers agree when emphasizing the pivotal role of prediction in both cognitive and neural processing, few would show the same level of concurrence with respect to the endorsed terminology, definitions, exemplary phenomena considered representative for such processing or the mechanisms suggested to underlie their occurrence
Summary
In 1637 the Art of Worldly Wisdom taught us that “even knowledge has to be in the fashion” (Gracian, 1991). These terms convey partially different meanings: while prediction refers to a representation of an event (potentially comparable to the previous specification of the term expectation), anticipation describes the impact of predictions on current behavior, e.g., decisions and actions based on such predictions.
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