Predictive Codes for Forthcoming Perception in the Frontal Cortex

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 314; no. 5803; pp. 1311 - 1314
• Main Authors: Summerfield, Christopher, Egner, Tobias, Greene, Matthew, Koechlin, Etienne, Mangels, Jennifer, Hirsch, Joy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 24-11-2006; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Amygdala; Amygdala - physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Brain Mapping; Connectivity; Discrimination (Psychology); Empirical evidence; Eye and associated structures. Visual pathways and centers. Vision; Face; Female; Form Perception; Frontal Lobe - physiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Mental Processes; Models, Neurological; Nerve Net - physiology; Neurons; Neurons - physiology; Neurosciences; Occipital Lobe - physiology; Parietal Lobe - physiology; Perception; Research universities; Sensory perception; Temporal Lobe - physiology; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; Visual cortex; Visual Cortex - physiology; Visual task performance; Human; Visual cortex; Visual pathway; Coding; Central nervous system; Perception; Representation; Frontal cortex; Face; Encephalon
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1132028

Incoming sensory information is often ambiguous, and the brain has to make decisions during perception. "Predictive coding" proposes that the brain resolves perceptual ambiguity by anticipating the forthcoming sensory environment, generating a template against which to match observed sensory evidence. We observed a neural representation of predicted perception in the medial frontal cortex, while human subjects decided whether visual objects were faces or not. Moreover, perceptual decisions about faces were associated with an increase in top-down connectivity from the frontal cortex to face-sensitive visual areas, consistent with the matching of predicted and observed evidence for the presence of faces.