Prediction-error signals to violated expectations about person identity and head orientation are doubly-dissociated across dorsal and ventral visual stream regions

Abstract

Predictive coding theories of perception highlight the importance of constantly updated internal models of the world to predict future sensory inputs. Importantly, such theories suggest that prediction-error signalling should be specific to the violation of predictions concerning distinct attributes of the same stimulus. To interrogate this as yet untested prediction, we focused on two different aspects of face perception (identity and orientation) and investigated whether cortical regions which process particular stimulus attributes also signal prediction violations with respect to those same stimulus attributes. We employed a paradigm using sequential trajectories of images to create perceptual expectations about face orientation and identity, and then parametrically violated each attribute. Using MEG data, we identified double dissociations of expectancy violations in the dorsal and ventral visual streams, such that the right fusiform gyrus showed greater prediction-error signals to identity violations than to orientation violations, whereas the left angular gyrus showed the converse pattern of results. Our results suggest that perceptual prediction-error signalling is directly linked to regions associated with the processing of different stimulus properties.