Perceptual Anticipation Research Articles

Testing an acoustic model of the P-center in English and Japanese.

The notion of the "perceptual center" or the "P-center" has been put forward to account for the repeated finding that acoustic and perceived syllable onsets do not necessarily coincide, at least in the perception of simple monosyllables or disyllables. The magnitude of the discrepancy between acoustics and perception-the location of the P-center in the speech signal- has proven difficult to estimate, though acoustic models of the effect do exist. The present study asks if the P-center effect can be documented in natural connected speech of English and Japanese and examines if an acoustic model that defines the P-center as the moment of the fastest energy change in a syllabic amplitude envelope adequately reflects the P-center in the two languages. A sensorimotor synchronization paradigm was deployed to address the research questions. The results provide evidence for the existence of the P-center effect in speech of both languages while the acoustic P-center model is found to be less applicable to Japanese. Sensorimotor synchronization patterns further suggest that the P-center may reflect perceptual anticipation of a vowel onset.

Humans predict the forest, not the trees: statistical learning of spatiotemporal structure in visual scenes.

The human brain is capable of using statistical regularities to predict future inputs. In the real world, such inputs typically comprise a collection of objects (e.g. a forest constitutes numerous trees). The present study aimed to investigate whether perceptual anticipation relies on lower-level or higher-level information. Specifically, we examined whether the human brain anticipates each object in a scene individually or anticipates the scene as a whole. To explore this issue, we first trained participants to associate co-occurring objects within fixed spatial arrangements. Meanwhile, participants implicitly learned temporal regularities between these displays. We then tested how spatial and temporal violations of the structure modulated behavior and neural activity in the visual system using fMRI. We found that participants only showed a behavioral advantage of temporal regularities when the displays conformed to their previously learned spatial structure, demonstrating that humans form configuration-specific temporal expectations instead of predicting individual objects. Similarly, we found suppression of neural responses for temporally expected compared with temporally unexpected objects in lateral occipital cortex only when the objects were embedded within expected configurations. Overall, our findings indicate that humans form expectations about object configurations, demonstrating the prioritization of higher-level over lower-level information in temporal expectation.

The contralateral effects of anticipated stimuli on brain activity measured by ERP and fMRI.

The present study examined the effects of unilateral stimulus presentation on the right hemisphere preponderance of the stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) in the event-related potential (ERP) experiment, and aimed to elucidate whether unilateral stimulus presentation affected activations in the bilateral anterior insula in the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment. Separate fMRI and ERP experiments were conducted using visual and auditory stimuli by manipulating the position of stimulus presentation (left side or right side) with the time estimation task. The ERP experiment revealed a significant right hemisphere preponderance during left stimulation and no laterality during the right stimulation. The fMRI experiment revealed that the left anterior insula was activated only in the right stimulation of auditory and visual stimuli whereas the right anterior insula was activated by both left and right stimulations. The visual condition retained a contralateral dominance, but the auditory condition showed a right hemisphere dominance in a localized area. The results of this study indicate that the SPN reflects perceptual anticipation, and also that the anterior insula is involved in its occurrence.

Developmental differences in perceptual anticipation underlie different sensitivities to coarticulatory dynamics.

Anticipatory coarticulation is an indispensable feature of speech dynamics contributing to spoken language fluency. Research has shown that children speak with greater degrees of vowel anticipatory coarticulation than adults - that is, greater vocalic influence on previous segments. The present study examined how developmental differences in anticipatory coarticulation transfer to the perceptual domain.Using a gating paradigm, we tested 29 seven-year-olds and 93 German adult listeners with sequences produced by child and adult speakers, hence corresponding to low versus high vocalic anticipatory coarticulation degrees. First, children predicted vowel targets less successfully than adults. Second, greater perceptual accuracy was found for low compared to highly coarticulated speech. We propose that variations in coarticulation degrees reflect perceptually important differences in information dynamics and that listeners are more sensitive to fast changes in information than to a large amount of vocalic information spread across long segmental spans.

The Difference in Perceptual Anticipation Between Professional Tennis Athletes and Second-Grade Athletes Before Batting.

To investigate the differences in cognitive processing of perceptual anticipation of tennis players at different levels before batting by the event-related potential (ERP) technique, we used the skilled-expert paradigm. We compared the cognitive and neural mechanisms of professional tennis athletes and second-grade athletes relating to their perceptual anticipation of the batting line at different time points [the time point of the ball landing (T0), and the 80 ms before batting time point (T1)]. The results showed that, regardless of the T0 or T1 time point, professional tennis athletes had shorter anticipation times and higher correct batting line rates than second-grade athletes. The ERP results demonstrated that compared with second-grade athletes, professional tennis athletes induced smaller N1 amplitudes and larger P2 amplitudes in early perceptual anticipation, and induced smaller N2 and larger P3 amplitudes in late perceptual anticipation. These studies suggest that, regardless of whether they are in an early or late stage, tennis professional athletes are faster and more accurate in respect of their perceptual anticipation of tennis lines than second-grade athletes are. This is possible since the relevant neural network of the former is more easily activated and faster. The prefrontal cortex may be a critical area of the brain for perceptual anticipation in tennis.

Representational precision in visual cortex reveals outcome encoding and reward modulation during action preparation

According to ideomotor theory, goal-directed action involves the active perceptual anticipation of actions and their associated effects. We used multivariate analysis of fMRI data to test if preparation of an action promotes precision in the perceptual representation of the action. In addition, we tested how reward magnitude modulates this effect. Finally, we examined how expectation and uncertainty impact neural precision in the motor cortex. In line with our predictions, preparation of a hand or face action increased the precision of neural activation patterns in the extrastriate body area (EBA) and fusiform face area (FFA), respectively. The size of this effect of anticipation predicted individuals' efficiency at performing the prepared action. In addition, increasing reward magnitude increased the precision of perceptual representations in both EBA and FFA although this effect was limited to the group of participants that learned to associate face actions with high reward. Surprisingly, examination of representations in the hand motor cortex and face motor cortex yielded effects in the opposite direction. Our findings demonstrate that the precision of representations in visual and motor areas provides an important neural signature of the sensorimotor representations involved in goal-directed action.

Contributions of perceptual and motor experience of an observed action to anticipating its result.

To gain deeper insight into respective contributions of perceptual and motor experience of an observed action to anticipating its result, we examined the perceptual anticipation of players with different action roles in striking sports. Baseball pitchers and batters at both advanced and intermediate levels were asked to make a decision about whether to swing the bat when viewing a series of videos showing incomplete sequences of a model pitcher throwing a strike or a ball. The results revealed that first 100 ms of ball flight could discriminate advanced batters from intermediate pitchers and batters (with no difference between intermediate pitchers and batters). Particularly, advanced batters (perceptual experts with regard to pitching action) were statistically more accurate and less uncertain in making decisions than were intermediate players, whereas advanced pitchers (motor experts) only showed this tendency without reaching a statistically significant level. Moreover, advanced batters demonstrated greater perceptual sensitivity in discriminating when to swing at strikes over balls than all other players. Our findings suggested that when players were above intermediate level, perceptual experience of an observed action facilitated the perceptual anticipation to a greater extent than motor experience of producing it. (PsycINFO Database Record

Source analysis of stimulus-preceding negativity constrained by functional magnetic resonance imaging

The stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) is an event-related potential (ERP) reflecting anticipation. The anterior insular cortex is assumed to be one of the physiological sources of the SPN. However, the precise neural substrates of the SPN have yet to be confirmed. We therefore performed separate functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and ERP studies using the same time estimation task, followed by fMRI-constrained ERP source analysis. Dipole locations were determined by the fMRI results, while the time courses of dipole activities were modeled by the ERP data. Analysis revealed that the right anterior insula was significantly activated before delivery of the feedback stimulus, whereas the left anterior insula was not, and that the SPN mainly arose from four groups of brain regions related to, respectively: (1) the salience network, (2) reward expectation, (3) perceptual anticipation, and (4) arousal. The results suggest that the SPN pertains to multiple brain functions with complex interactions.

Does expert perceptual anticipation transfer to a dissimilar domain?

The purpose of this experiment was to extend theoretical understanding of transfer of learning by investigating whether expert perceptual anticipation skill transfers to a dissimilar domain. The capability of expert and near-expert rugby players as well as novices to anticipate skill type within rugby (learning sport) was first examined using a temporal occlusion paradigm. Participants watched video footage of an opponent performing rugby skill types that were temporally occluded at different points in the opponent's action and then made a written prediction. Thereafter, the capability of participants to transfer their anticipation skill to predict pitch type in baseball (transfer sport) was examined. Participants watched video footage of a pitcher throwing different pitch types that were temporally occluded and made a written prediction. Results indicated that expert and near-expert rugby players anticipated significantly better than novices across all occlusion conditions. However, none of the skill groups were able to transfer anticipation skill to predict pitch type in baseball. The findings of this paper, along with existing literature, support the theoretical prediction that transfer of perceptual anticipation is expertise dependent and restricted to similar domains.

Observation and action priming in anticipative tasks implying biological movements.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of short-term priming in perceptual anticipation tasks involving point-light biological motions. After the production or the observation of a relevant or an irrelevant movement (action vs. observation priming), 11 right-handed volunteers were asked to anticipate, as quickly and accurately as possible, the end point of a pointing movement after the stimulus vanished upon completion of 60% of the total movement. Our results indicate that perceptual accuracy is significantly affected only with relevant observation priming. This suggests that perceptual anticipation tasks' involving point-light biological motions implies specific perceptual competencies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

Dynamic cortical involvement in implicit anticipation during statistical learning

The prediction of future events is fundamental in a large number of critical neurobehavioral contexts including implicit motor learning. This learning process relies on the probabilities with which events occur, and is a dynamic phenomenon. The aim of present study was to investigate the development of anticipatory processes during implicit learning. A decision making task was employed in which the frequency of trial types was manipulated such that one trial type was disproportionately prevalent as compared to the remaining three trial types. A 275 channel whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) system was used to investigate the spatiotemporal distribution of event-related desynchronization (ERD) and synchronization (ERS). The results revealed that oscillations within the alpha (10–12Hz) and beta (14–30Hz) frequencies were associated with anticipatory processes in distinct networks in the course of learning. During early phases of learning the contralateral motor cortex, the anterior cingulate, the caudate and the inferior frontal gyrus showed ERDs within beta and alpha frequencies, putatively reflecting preparation of next motor response. As the task progressed, alpha ERSs in occipitotemporal regions and putamen likely reflect perceptual anticipation of the forthcoming stimuli.

Investigating Perceptual Anticipation in a Naturalistic Task using a Temporal Occlusion Paradigm

Perceptual anticipation has often been investigated using a video-based, temporal occlusion paradigm, especially in sport. In this paradigm, the participants’ task is to predict the outcome of the situation based only on the information prior to the occlusion. The occlusion point(s) has typically been based on objective, physically-deterministic events (e.g., the point of foot-ball contact in a soccer penalty kick). However, in other dynamic domains (e.g., law enforcement), such events are often less informative with regards to the ultimate outcome of any given action. In this paper, we describe a series of studies that employed a temporal occlusion paradigm in law enforcement. Using a series of converging methods of analysis, the purpose was to identify scenarios that discriminated between experienced and less-experienced law enforcement officers’ ability to accurately anticipate the immediate future state of the situation, and then identify the occlusion point in each discriminating scenario that maximized the experience-based difference. This method can be applied to investigations of perceptual anticipation in other dynamic and complex domains.

Dynamic Interactions between Large-Scale Brain Networks Predict Behavioral Adaptation after Perceptual Errors

Failures to perceive visual stimuli lead to errors in decision making. Different theoretical accounts implicate either medial frontal (MF) cognitive control processes or prestimulus occipital (OC) cortical oscillatory dynamics in errors during perceptual tasks. Here, we show that these 2 previously unconnected theoretical accounts can be reconciled, and the brain regions described by the 2 theories have complimentary and interactive roles in supporting error adaptation. Using a perceptual discrimination task and time–frequency network-based analyses of electroencephalography data, we show that perceptual anticipation and posterror top–down control mechanisms recruit distinct but interacting brain networks. MF sites were a hub for theta-band networks and theta–alpha coupling elicited after errors, whereas occipital sites were a network hub during stimulus anticipation and alpha–gamma coupling. Granger causality analyses revealed that these networks communicate in their preferred direction and frequency band: response-related MF → OC interactions occurred in the theta band, whereas stimulus anticipation-related OC → MF interactions occurred in the alpha band. Subjects with stronger network interactions were more likely to improve performance after errors. These findings demonstrate that multiple large-scale brain networks interact dynamically and in a directionally specific manner in different frequency bands to support flexible behavior adaptation during perceptual decision making.

How Would the World Look if It Looked as if It were Encoded as an Intertwined Set of Probability Density Distributions?

How Would the World Look if It Looked as if It were Encoded as an Intertwined Set of Probability Density Distributions?

Exploring the Merits of Perceptual Anticipation in the Soccer Penalty Kick

This study investigated whether soccer penalty-takers can exploit predictive information from the goalkeeper's actions. Eight low- and seven high-skilled participants kicked balls in a penalty task with the goalkeeper's action displayed on a large screen. The goalkeeper initiated his dive either before, at or after the ball was struck. The percentage of balls shot to the empty half of the goal was not above chance when the participants could only rely on predictive information. Gaze patterns suggested that the need to fixate the target location to maintain aiming accuracy hindered perceptual anticipation. It is argued that penalty-takers should select a target location in advance of the run-up to the ball and disregard the goalkeeper's actions.

Synchronization between the end stages of the dorsal and the ventral visual stream

The end stage areas of the ventral (IT) and the dorsal (AIP) visual streams encode the shape of disparity-defined three-dimensional (3D) surfaces. Recent anatomical tracer studies have found direct reciprocal connections between the 3D-shape selective areas in IT and AIP. Whether these anatomical connections are used to facilitate 3D-shape perception is still unknown. We simultaneously recorded multi-unit activity (MUA) and local field potentials in IT and AIP while monkeys discriminated between concave and convex 3D shapes and measured the degree to which the activity in IT and AIP synchronized during the task. We observed strong beta-band synchronization between IT and AIP preceding stimulus onset that decreased shortly after stimulus onset and became modulated by stereo-signal strength and stimulus contrast during the later portion of the stimulus period. The beta-coherence modulation was unrelated to task-difficulty, regionally specific, and dependent on the MUA selectivity of the pairs of sites under study. The beta-spike-field coherence in AIP predicted the upcoming choice of the monkey. Several convergent lines of evidence suggested AIP as the primary source of the AIP-IT synchronized activity. The synchronized beta activity seemed to occur during perceptual anticipation and when the system has stabilized to a particular perceptual state but not during active visual processing. Our findings demonstrate for the first time that synchronized activity exists between the end stages of the dorsal and ventral stream during 3D-shape discrimination.

Implicit Perceptual Anticipation Triggered by Statistical Learning

Our environments are highly regular in terms of when and where objects appear relative to each other. Statistical learning allows us to extract and represent these regularities, but how this knowledge is used by the brain during ongoing perception is unclear. We used rapid event-related fMRI to measure hemodynamic responses to individual visual images in a continuous stream that contained sequential contingencies. Sixteen human observers encountered these statistical regularities while performing an unrelated cognitive task, and were unaware of their existence. Nevertheless, the right anterior hippocampus showed greater hemodynamic responses to predictive stimuli, providing evidence for implicit anticipation as a consequence of unsupervised statistical learning. Hippocampal anticipation based on predictive stimuli correlated with subsequent processing of the predicted stimuli in occipital and parietal cortex, and anticipation in additional brain regions correlated with facilitated object recognition as reflected in behavioral priming. Additional analyses suggested that implicit perceptual anticipation does not contribute to explicit familiarity, but can result in predictive potentiation of category-selective ventral visual cortex. Overall, these findings show that future-oriented processing can arise incidentally during the perception of statistical regularities.

Effects of microgravity on cognition: The case of mental imagery

Human cognitive performance is an important factor for the successful and safe outcome of commercial and non-commercial manned space missions. This article aims to provide a systematic review of studies investigating the effects of microgravity on the cognitive abilities of parabolic or space flight participants due to the absence of the gravito-inertial force. We will focus on mental imagery: one of the best studied cognitive functions. Mental imagery is closely connected to perception and motor behavior. It aids important processes such as perceptual anticipation, problem solving and motor simulation, all of which are critical for space travel. Thirteen studies were identified and classified into the following topics: spatial representations, mental image transformations and motor imagery. While research on spatial representation and mental image transformation continues to grow and specific differences in cognitive functioning between 1 g and 0 g have been observed, motor imagery has thus far received little attention.

The role of the right anterior insular cortex in the right hemisphere preponderance of stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN): An fMRI study

The stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) is an event-related potential that reflects emotional and perceptual anticipation. The SPN is characterized by a right hemisphere preponderance in amplitude, and previous studies suggest that activity in the insular cortex might contribute to the amplitude of the SPN. Although the insula might contribute to the SPN's occurrence, the exact role of the insula in the pattern of SPN right hemisphere dominance remains unclear. In the present study, we manipulated task difficulty and brain activation was measured using event-related fMRI, to examine the relationship between insula functioning and the right hemisphere preponderance of the SPN. Twenty-three participants performed a time estimation task, in which they had to press a button when they thought a predetermined time had elapsed. Three seconds after pressing the button, a feedback stimulus was presented, informing subjects as to whether their response was correct, too early, or too late. There were four experimental conditions: easy, moderate, difficult, and no feedback. The fMRI results showed significantly increased activation in the bilateral insular cortex during the pre-feedback anticipation phase, in which the subjects prepare to pay attention to the occurrence of feedback stimuli. In addition, in the Difficult–Easy and Difficult–Moderate contrasts, significantly increased activations of the right anterior insula were demonstrated, suggesting the possibility that this area does underlie the SPN right hemisphere preponderance. Because the right anterior insula is related to awareness of viscerosensory information, the SPN right hemisphere preponderance might itself be related to the awareness of interoceptive information that precedes feedback stimuli.

Cortisol and Catecholamine stress hormone decrease is associated with the behavior of perceptual anticipation of mirthful laughter

Chronic stress is correlated with increases in stress hormones cortisol and catecholamines. We have reported that a mirthful laughter humor experience (a eustress positive phenomenon that ameliorates biological effects of distress): 1) increases CD4 cells; 2) increases NKCA; 3) increases IFN‐γ and, in perceptual anticipation of a laughter eustress event increases positive psychological mood states along with β‐endorphin and HGH. Postulating that a decrease in neuroendocrine stress hormones may parallel these anticipatory changes, we studied 16 healthy fasting male subjects for cortisol and catecholamine plasma levels in anticipation of a eustress humor/laughter experience. Three days prior to the intervention subjects were notified of random assignment (experimental or control). Blood was drawn before the intervention, four times during and three times post. One sided independent t‐tests showed anticipatory baseline decreases for cortisol, epinephrine and dopac (dopamine catabolite) in the experimental laughter group (p<0.01). Trend analysis showed progressive patterns of decrease (p<0.01). We suggest the perception of anticipating a positive eustress event decreases stress hormones cortisol and catecholamines, concomitant with positive mood state changes. These neuroendocrine findings have immune modulation implications beneficial in stress reduction for wellness & prevention.