Predictive Cues Research Articles

Enhancing rhythmic temporal expectations: The dominance of auditory modality under spatial uncertainty.

To effectively process the most relevant information, the brain anticipates the optimal timing for allocating attentional resources. Behavior can be optimized by automatically aligning attention with external rhythmic structures, whether visual or auditory. Although the auditory modality is known for its efficacy in representing temporal information, the current body of research has not conclusively determined whether visual or auditory rhythmic presentations have a definitive advantage in entraining temporal attention. The present study directly examined the effects of auditory and visual rhythmic cues on the discrimination of visual targets in Experiment 1 and on auditory targets in Experiment 2. Additionally, the role of endogenous spatial attention was also considered. When and where the target was the most likely to occur were cued by unimodal (visual or auditory) and bimodal (audiovisual) signals. A sequence of salient events was employed to elicit rhythm-based temporal expectations and a symbolic predictive cue served to orient spatial attention. The results suggest a superiority of auditory over visual rhythms, irrespective of spatial attention, whether the spatial cue and rhythm converge or not (unimodal or bimodal), and regardless of the target modality (visual or auditory). These findings are discussed in terms of a modality-specific rhythmic orienting, while considering a single, supramodal system operating in a top-down manner for endogenous spatial attention.

Olfactory Categorization Is Shaped by a Transmodal Cortical Network for Evaluating Perceptual Predictions.

Creating and evaluating predictions are considered important features in sensory perception. Little is known about processing differences between the senses and their cortical substrates. Here, we tested the hypothesis that olfaction, the sense of smell, would be highly dependent on (nonolfactory) object-predictive cues and involve distinct cortical processing features. We developed a novel paradigm to compare prediction error processing across senses. Participants listened to spoken word cues (e.g., "lilac") and determined whether target stimuli (odors or pictures) matched the word cue or not. In two behavioral experiments (total n = 113; 72 female), the disparity between congruent and incongruent response times was exaggerated for olfactory relative to visual targets, indicating a greater dependency on predictive verbal cues to process olfactory targets. A preregistered fMRI study (n = 30; 19 female) revealed the anterior cingulate cortex (a region central for error detection) being more activated by incongruent olfactory targets, indicating a role for olfactory predictive error processing. Additionally, both the primary olfactory and visual cortices were significantly activated for incongruent olfactory targets, suggesting olfactory prediction errors are dependent on cross-sensory processing resources, whereas visual prediction errors are not. We propose that olfaction is characterized by a strong dependency on predictive (nonolfactory) cues and that odors are evaluated in the context of such predictions by a designated transmodal cortical network. Our results indicate differences in how predictive cues are used by different senses in rapid decision-making.

Exploring the effect of fingertip aero-haptic feedforward cues in directing eyes-free target acquisition in VR

BackgroundThe sense of touch plays a crucial role in interactive behavior within virtual spaces, particularly when visual attention is absent. Although haptic feedback has been widely used to compensate for the lack of visual cues, the use of tactile information as a predictive feedforward cue to guide hand movements remains unexplored and lacks theoretical understanding. MethodsThis study introduces a fingertip aero-haptic rendering method to investigate its effectiveness in directing hand movements during eyes-free spatial interactions. The wearable device incorporates a multichannel micro-airflow chamber to deliver adjustable tactile effects on the fingertips. ResultsThe first study verified that tactile directional feedforward cues significantly improve user capabilities in eyes-free target acquisition and that users rely heavily on haptic indications rather than spatial memory to control their hands. A subsequent study examined the impact of enriched tactile feedforward cues on assisting users in determining precise target positions during eyes-free interactions, and assessed the required learning efforts. ConclusionsThe haptic feedforward effect holds great practical promise in eyeless design for virtual reality. We aim to integrate cognitive models and tactile feedforward cues in the future, and apply richer tactile feedforward information to alleviate users' perceptual deficiencies.

Influences of temporal and probabilistic expectation on subjective time of emotional stimulus.

Subjective time perception can change based on a stimulus's valence and expectancy. Yet, it is unclear how these two factors might interact to shape our sense of how long something lasts. Here, we conducted two experiments examining the effects of temporal and probabilistic expectancy on the perceived duration of images with varying emotional valence. In Experiment 1, we varied the temporal predictive cue with varying stimulus-onset asynchronies (SOAs), while in Experiment 2, we manipulated the cue-emotion probabilistic associations. Our results revealed that stimuli appearing earlier than anticipated were perceived as shorter, whereas less infrequent stimuli seemed to last longer. In addition, negative images were perceived longer than neural ones. However, no significant interaction between expectancy and stimulus valence was observed. We interpret these using the internal clock model, suggesting that while emotional stimuli primarily affect the pacemaker's rhythm through arousal, expectation steers attention, influencing how we register time's passage.

Poor lie detection related to an under-reliance on statistical cues and overreliance on own behaviour

The surge of online scams is taking a considerable financial and emotional toll. This is partially because humans are poor at detecting lies. In a series of three online experiments (Nexp1 = 102, Nexp2 = 108, Nexp3 = 100) where participants are given the opportunity to lie as well as to assess the potential lies of others, we show that poor lie detection is related to the suboptimal computations people engage in when assessing lies. Participants used their own lying behaviour to predict whether other people lied, despite this cue being uninformative, while under-using more predictive statistical cues. This was observed by comparing the weights participants assigned to different cues, to those of a model trained on the ground truth. Moreover, across individuals, reliance on statistical cues was associated with better discernment, while reliance on one’s own behaviour was not. These findings suggest scam detection may be improved by using tools that augment relevant statistical cues.

Synthetic exendin-4 disrupts responding to reward predictive incentive cues in male rats.

Synthetic exendin-4 (EX4, exenatide), is a GLP-1 receptor agonist used clinically to treat glycemia in Type-2 diabetes mellitus. EX4 also promotes weight loss and alters food reward-seeking behaviors in part due to activation of GLP-1 receptors in the mesolimbic dopamine system. Evidence suggests that GLP-1 receptor activity can directly attenuate cue-induced reward seeking. Here, we tested the effects of EX4 (0.6, 1.2, and 2.4 μg/kg, i.p.) on incentive cue (IC) responding, using a task where rats emit a nosepoke response during an intermittent reward-predictive IC to obtain a sucrose reward. EX4 dose-dependently attenuated responding to ICs and increased the latencies to respond to the IC and enter the sucrose reward cup. Moreover, EX4 dose-dependently decreased the total number of active port nosepokes for every cue presented. There was no effect of EX4 on the number of reward cup entries per reward earned, a related reward-seeking metric with similar locomotor demand. There was a dose-dependent interaction between the EX4 dose and session time on the responding to ICs and nosepoke response latency. The interaction indicated that effects of EX4 at the beginning and end of the session differed by the dose of EX4, suggesting dose-dependent pharmacokinetic effects. EX4 had no effect on free sucrose consumption behavior (i.e., total volume consumed, bout size, number of bouts) within the range of total sucrose volumes obtainable during the IC task (~3.5 ml). However, when rats were given unrestricted access for 1 h, where rats obtained much larger total volumes of sucrose (~30 ml), we observed some dose-dependent EX4 effects on drinking behavior, including decreases in total volume consumed. Together, these findings suggest that activation of the GLP-1 receptor modulates the incentive properties of cues attributed with motivational significance.

External cues improve visual working memory encoding in the presence of salient distractors in schizophrenia.

People with schizophrenia (PSZ) are impaired in attentional prioritization of non-salient but relevant stimuli over salient distractors during visual working memory (VWM) encoding. Conversely, guidance of top-down attention by external predictive cues is intact. Yet, it is unknown whether this preserved ability can help PSZ encode more information in the presence of salient distractors. We employed a visuospatial change-detection task using four Gabor patches with differing orientations in 66 PSZ and 74 healthy controls (HCS). Two Gabor patches flickered which were designated either as targets or distractors and either a predictive or a non-predictive cue was displayed to manipulate top-down attention, resulting in four conditions. We observed significant effects of group, salience and cue as well as significant interactions of salience by cue, group by salience and group by cue. Across all conditions, PSZ stored significantly less information in VWM than HCS. PSZ stored significantly less non-flickering than flickering information with a non-predictive cue. However, PSZ stored significantly more flickering and non-flickering information with a predictive cue. Our findings indicate that control of attentional selection is impaired in schizophrenia. We demonstrate that additional top-down information significantly improves performance in PSZ. The observed deficit in attentional control suggests a disturbance of GABAergic inhibition in early visual areas. Moreover, our findings are indicative of a mechanism for enhancing attentional control in PSZ, which could be utilized by pro-cognitive interventions. Thus, the current paradigm is suitable to reveal both preserved and compromised cognitive component processes in schizophrenia.

Dopamine projections to the basolateral amygdala drive the encoding of identity-specific reward memories.

To make adaptive decisions, we build an internal model of the associative relationships in an environment and use it to make predictions and inferences about specific available outcomes. Detailed, identity-specific cue-reward memories are a core feature of such cognitive maps. Here we used fiber photometry, cell-type and pathway-specific optogenetic manipulation, Pavlovian cue-reward conditioning and decision-making tests in male and female rats, to reveal that ventral tegmental area dopamine (VTADA) projections to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) drive the encoding of identity-specific cue-reward memories. Dopamine is released in the BLA during cue-reward pairing; VTADA→BLA activity is necessary and sufficient to link the identifying features of a reward to a predictive cue but does not assign general incentive properties to the cue or mediate reinforcement. These data reveal a dopaminergic pathway for the learning that supports adaptive decision-making and help explain how VTADA neurons achieve their emerging multifaceted role in learning.

Predictive cues elicit a liminal confirmation bias in the moral evaluation of real-world images.

Previous research suggested that predictive cues enhance the preference and reduce the response time for congruent targets during bivalent food evaluation, indicating a confirmation bias. Less is known about how prior processing affects subjective moral evaluation. Here, we used three different types of predictive cues to elicit directional vs. non-predictive prior processing and then asked the participants to perform moral evaluations on a continuous scale from -10 ("very immoral") to +10 ("very moral") with a diverse set of real-world images. Our experimental image database balanced the morality of image content and the volatility of the ratings based on the means and standard deviations in a preliminary study. Ratings, response times, and gaze positions were measured to examine the effects of predictive cues on the moral evaluation of real-world images. We found that the moral ratings were in line with the expectations induced by the cues. Compared to the non-predictive condition, the moral evaluation in the directional conditions was more polarized. For neutral images, the predictive cues tilted the evaluations to positive vs. negative, indicating a decisive liminal influence. High-volatility images were impacted more than low-volatility images in ratings as well as response times. Furthermore, the gaze positions during the interval between the predictive cue and the image showed a spatial displacement in line with the cue instruction, indicating a response bias. Together, the results show that predictive cues elicit a liminal confirmation bias in moral image evaluation, much in the same way as in bivalent food evaluation.

Latent inhibition in humans from simple stimulus exposure.

Two experiments observed an effect consistent with a latent-inhibition (LI) effect in humans that (a) did not depend on masking or instruction-generated expectations and (b) suggested that the effect results from a change in processing of the predictive cue. Participants viewed a video of a superhero character flying through three different contexts past a different stimulus in each context. In conditioning, The superhero flew past a target cue that was either Novel (Group No Exposure), had been preexposed in the Same context as where conditioning was occurring (Group Same), or was preexposed in a Different context (Group Different). Each time the superhero flew past the target cue his Hands Glowed (outcome). On test (E1), an image of the superhero flying in the context with normal Hands and the target cue was present. Participants were asked if anything was missing. Experiment 2 tested participants with the superhero present and his Hands Glowing to test outcome-cue associations (Test 1) or just the superhero in the context (Test 2, counterbalanced) to assess contextual associations. In E1 fewer people in Group Same reported the outcome missing than Group No Exposure or Group Different. In E2 fewer people in Group Same reported the target cue missing when presented with the outcome than in the other groups, a result inconsistent with interference accounts of LI. When presented only with contextual cues, reports of the stimulus missing showed that the context was associated with the stimuli presented within it. Results are discussed with respect to theories and demonstrations of human LI. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

FSHβ links photoperiodic signaling to seasonal reproduction in Japanese quail

Annual cycles in daylength provide an initial predictive environmental cue that plants and animals use to time seasonal biology. Seasonal changes in photoperiodic information acts to entrain endogenous programs in physiology to optimize an animal’s fitness. Attempts to identify the neural and molecular substrates of photoperiodic time measurement in birds have, to date, focused on blunt changes in light exposure during a restricted period of photoinducibility. The objectives of these studies were first to characterize a molecular seasonal clock in Japanese quail and second, to identify the key transcripts involved in endogenously generated interval timing that underlies photosensitivity in birds. We hypothesized that the mediobasal hypothalamus (MBH) provides the neuroendocrine control of photoperiod-induced changes in reproductive physiology, and that the pars distalis of the pituitary gland contains an endogenous internal timer for the short photoperiod-dependent development of reproductive photosensitivity. Here, we report distinct seasonal waveforms of transcript expression in the MBH, and pituitary gland and discovered the patterns were not synchronized across tissues. Follicle-stimulating hormone-β (FSHβ) expression increased during the simulated spring equinox, prior to photoinduced increases in prolactin, thyrotropin-stimulating hormone-β, and testicular growth. Diurnal analyses of transcript expression showed sustained elevated levels of FSHβ under conditions of the spring equinox, compared to autumnal equinox, short (<12L) and long (>12L) photoperiods. FSHβ expression increased in quail held in non-stimulatory short photoperiod, indicative of the initiation of an endogenously programmed interval timer. These data identify that FSHβ establishes a state of photosensitivity for the external coincidence timing of seasonal physiology. The independent regulation of FSHβ expression provides an alternative pathway through which other supplementary environmental cues, such as temperature, can fine tune seasonal reproductive maturation and involution.

FSHβ links photoperiodic signaling to seasonal reproduction in Japanese quail.

Annual cycles in daylength provide an initial predictive environmental cue that plants and animals use to time seasonal biology. Seasonal changes in photoperiodic information acts to entrain endogenous programs in physiology to optimize an animal's fitness. Attempts to identify the neural and molecular substrates of photoperiodic time measurement in birds have, to date, focused on blunt changes in light exposure during a restricted period of photoinducibility. The objectives of these studies were first to characterize a molecular seasonal clock in Japanese quail and second, to identify the key transcripts involved in endogenously generated interval timing that underlies photosensitivity in birds. We hypothesized that the mediobasal hypothalamus (MBH) provides the neuroendocrine control of photoperiod-induced changes in reproductive physiology, and that the pars distalis of the pituitary gland contains an endogenous internal timer for the short photoperiod-dependent development of reproductive photosensitivity. Here, we report distinct seasonal waveforms of transcript expression in the MBH, and pituitary gland and discovered the patterns were not synchronized across tissues. Follicle-stimulating hormone-β (FSHβ) expression increased during the simulated spring equinox, prior to photoinduced increases in prolactin, thyrotropin-stimulating hormone-β, and testicular growth. Diurnal analyses of transcript expression showed sustained elevated levels of FSHβ under conditions of the spring equinox, compared to autumnal equinox, short (<12L) and long (>12L) photoperiods. FSHβ expression increased in quail held in non-stimulatory short photoperiod, indicative of the initiation of an endogenously programmed interval timer. These data identify that FSHβ establishes a state of photosensitivity for the external coincidence timing of seasonal physiology. The independent regulation of FSHβ expression provides an alternative pathway through which other supplementary environmental cues, such as temperature, can fine tune seasonal reproductive maturation and involution.

Conditioned inhibition of fear and reward in male and female rats

Stimuli in our environment are not always associated with an outcome. Some of these stimuli, depending on how they are presented, may gain inhibitory value or simply be ignored. If experienced in the presence of other cues predictive of appetitive or aversive outcomes, they typically gain inhibitory value and become predictive cues indicating the absence of appetitive or aversive outcomes. In this case, these cues are referred to as conditioned inhibitors. Here, male and female Long Evans rats underwent cue discrimination training where a reward cue was paired with sucrose, a fear cue with footshock, and an inhibitor cue resulted in neither sucrose or footshock. During a subsequent summation test for conditioned inhibition of fear and reward, the inhibitor cue was presented concurrently with the reward and fear cues without any outcome, intermixed with trials of reinforced reward and fear trials. Males showed significant conditioned inhibition of freezing, while females did not, which was not dependent on estrous. Both males and females showed significant conditioned inhibition of reward. During a retardation of fear acquisition test, the inhibitor was paired with footshock and both males and females showed delayed acquisition of fear. During a retardation of reward acquisition test, the inhibitor was paired with sucrose, and females showed delayed acquisition of reward, while males did not. In summary, males and females showed significant reward-fear-inhibitor cue discrimination, conditioned inhibition of reward, and retardation of fear acquisition. The main sex difference, which was not estrous-dependent, was the lack of conditioned inhibition of freezing in females. These data imply that while the inhibitor cue gained some inhibitory value in the females, the strength of this inhibitory value may not have been great enough to effectively downregulate freezing elicited by the fear cue.

Action does not enhance but attenuates predicted touch

Dominant motor control theories propose that the brain predicts and attenuates the somatosensory consequences of actions, referred to as somatosensory attenuation. Support comes from psychophysical and neuroimaging studies showing that touch applied on a passive hand elicits attenuated perceptual and neural responses if it is actively generated by one’s other hand, compared to an identical touch from an external origin. However, recent experimental findings have challenged this view by providing psychophysical evidence that the perceived intensity of touch on the passive hand is enhanced if the active hand does not receive touch simultaneously with the passive hand (somatosensory enhancement) and by further attributing attenuation to the double tactile stimulation of the hands upon contact. Here, we directly contrasted the hypotheses of the attenuation and enhancement models regarding how action influences somatosensory perception by manipulating whether the active hand contacts the passive hand. We further assessed somatosensory perception in the absence of any predictive cues in a condition that turned out to be essential for interpreting the experimental findings. In three pre-registered experiments, we demonstrate that action does not enhance the predicted touch (Experiment 1), that the previously reported ‘enhancement’ effects are driven by the reference condition used (Experiment 2), and that self-generated touch is robustly attenuated regardless of whether the two hands make contact (Experiment 3). Our results provide conclusive evidence that action does not enhance but attenuates predicted touch and prompt a reappraisal of recent experimental findings upon which theoretical frameworks proposing a perceptual enhancement by action prediction are based.

Event Related Brain Responses Reveal the Impact of Spatial Augmented Reality Predictive Cues on Mental Effort.

This article presents the results from a Spatial Augmented Reality (SAR) study which evaluated the cognitive cost of several predictive cues. Participants performed a validated procedural button pressing task, where the predictive cue annotations guided them to the upcoming task. While existing research has evaluated predictive cues based on their performance and self-rated mental effort, actual cognitive cost has yet to be investigated. To measure the user's brain activity, this study utilized electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings. Cognitive load was evaluated by measuring brain responses for a secondary auditory oddball task, with reduced brain responses to oddball tones expected when cognitive load in the primary task is highest. A simple monitor n-back task and procedural task comparing monitor versus SAR were conducted, followed by a version of the procedural task comparing the SAR predictive cues. Results from the brain responses were able to distinguish between performance enhancing cues with a high and low cognitive load. Electrical brain responses also revealed that having an arc or arrow guide towards the upcoming task required the least amount of mental effort.

Placing willed attention in context: a review of attention and free will

Attention is the ability to focus one's awareness on relevant events and objects while ignoring distracting ones. Laboratory studies of top-down voluntary attention commonly use predictive or instructional cues to direct attention. However, in real world scenarios, voluntary attention is not necessarily externally cued, but may be focused by internal, self-generated processes. The voluntary focusing of attention in the absence of external guidance has been referred to as “willed attention,” a term borrowed from the literature on willed motor actions. In a fashion similar to studies of willed (self-initiated) actions, during willed attention, participants are given the freedom to deploy attention based on their own free choices. Electrophysiological studies have shown that during willed attention, ongoing neural activity biases willed attention decisions on a moment-to-moment basis as reflected in transient patterns of brain electrical activity that predict where participants will later choose to focus their attention. Brain imaging studies have revealed that compared to cued attention, willed attention involves additional frontal cortical structures, which interact with the classic attentional control networks of the human brain to produce a modified network organization for willed attention control. In this introduction to willed attention, we briefly review the fields of voluntary attention and self-initiated motor actions, in order to describe willed attention and its neural correlates as they relate to the broader concepts of attention and volition.

Temperament and probabilistic predictive coding in visual-spatial attention

Cholinergic (Ach), Noradrenergic (NE), and Dopaminergic (DA) pathways play an important role in the regulation of spatial attention. The same neurotransmitters are also responsible for inter-individual differences in temperamental traits. Here we explored whether biologically defined temperamental traits determine differences in the ability to orient spatial attention as a function of the probabilistic association between cues and targets. To this aim, we administered the Structure of Temperament Questionnaire (STQ-77) to a sample of 151 participants who also performed a Posner task with central endogenous predictive (80 % valid/20 % invalid) or non-predictive cues (50 % valid/50 % invalid). We found that only participants with high scores in Plasticity and Intellectual Endurance showed a selective abatement of attentional costs with non-predictive cues. In addition, stepwise regression showed that costs in the non-predictive condition were negatively predicted by scores in Plasticity and positively predicted by scores in Probabilistic Thinking. These results show that stable temperamental characteristics play an important role in defining the inter-individual differences in attentional behaviour, especially in the presence of different probabilistic organisations of the sensory environment. These findings emphasize the importance of considering temperamental and personality traits in social and professional environments where the ability to control one's attention is a crucial functional skill.

"Uncertainty and predictiveness modulate attention in human predictive learning": Correction to Chao, McGregor, and Sanderson (2020).

Reports an error in "Uncertainty and predictiveness modulate attention in human predictive learning" by Chang-Mao Chao, Anthony McGregor and David J. Sanderson (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Advanced Online Publication, Nov 30, 2020, np). In the article, formatting for UK Research Councils funding was omitted. The author note and copyright line now reflect the standard acknowledgment of and formatting for the funding received for this article. All versions of this article have been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2020-88205-001.) Attention determines which cues receive processing and are learned about. Learning, however, leads to attentional biases. In the study of animal learning, in some circumstances, cues that have been previously predictive of their consequences are subsequently learned about more than are nonpredictive cues, suggesting that they receive more attention. In other circumstances, cues that have previously led to uncertain consequences are learned about more than are predictive cues. In human learning, there is a clear role for predictiveness, but a role for uncertainty has been less clear. Here, in a human learning task, we show that cues that led to uncertain outcomes were subsequently learned about more than were cues that were previously predictive of their outcomes. This effect occurred when there were few uncertain cues. When the number of uncertain cues was increased, attention switched to predictive cues. This pattern of results was found for cues (1) that were uncertain because they led to 2 different outcomes equally often in a nonpredictable manner and (2) that were used in a nonlinear discrimination and were not predictive individually but were predictive in combination with other cues. This suggests that both the opposing predictiveness and uncertainty effects were determined by the relationship between individual cues and outcomes rather than the predictive strength of combined cues. These results demonstrate that learning affects attention; however, the precise nature of the effect on attention depends on the level of task complexity, which reflects a potential switch between exploration and exploitation of cues. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Forward and backward recall dynamics.

Although possible to recall in both forward and backward order, recall proceeds most naturally in the order of encoding. Prior studies ask whether and how forward and backward recall differ. We reexamine this classic question by studying recall dynamics while varying the predictability and timing of forward and backward cues. Although overall accuracy did not differ by recall direction, recall dynamics highlight key distinctions. Forward recall exhibits a modest advantage for correct transitions following errors, independent of cueing predictability and list length. Without consistent directional cueing, participants initiate backward recall more accurately, but this effect reverses with predictable directional cues. Following omissions, participants commit more fill-in errors in backward recall. Our findings implicate an asymmetric, cue-dependent retrieval process underlying forward and backward recall, with relative contributions of primacy and recency depending on directional predictability. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Corticofugal regulation of predictive coding

Sensory systems must account for both contextual factors and prior experience to adaptively engage with the dynamic external environment. In the central auditory system, neurons modulate their responses to sounds based on statistical context. These response modulations can be understood through a hierarchical predictive coding lens: responses to repeated stimuli are progressively decreased, in a process known as repetition suppression, whereas unexpected stimuli produce a prediction error signal. A potential substrate for top-down predictive cues is the massive set of descending projections from the cortex to subcortical structures, although the role of these corticofugal neurons in predictive processing has never been directly assessed. We tested the effect of optogenetic inactivation of the auditory cortico-collicular feedback in awake mice on responses of auditory midbrain neurons to stimuli designed to test prediction error and repetition suppression. Inactivation of the cortico-collicular pathway led to a decrease in prediction error and repetition enhancement in these neurons. Overall, our results demonstrate that the auditory cortex provides cues about the statistical context of sound to subcortical brain regions via direct feedback, regulating processing of both prediction and repetition.