Non‐stimulated regions in early visual cortex encode the contents of conscious visual perception

Abstract

Predictions shape our perception. The theory of predictive processing poses that our brains make sense of incoming sensory input by generating predictions, which are sent back from higher to lower levels of the processing hierarchy. These predictions are based on our internal model of the world and enable inferences about the hidden causes of the sensory input data. It has been proposed that conscious perception corresponds to the currently most probable internal model of the world. Accordingly, predictions influencing conscious perception should be fed back from higher to lower levels of the processing hierarchy. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging and multivoxel pattern analysis to show that non-stimulated regions of early visual areas contain information about the conscious perception of an ambiguous visual stimulus. These results indicate that early sensory cortices in the human brain receive predictive feedback signals that reflect the current contents of conscious perception.

Seeing and extrapolating motion trajectories share common informative activation patterns in primary visual cortex

“…It should be noted that these results significantly extend the univariate results during the occlusion phase by showing that the pattern of activity in low‐level visual areas shows some commonalities during visible motion changes and occlusion. These results are also in line with a recent study which suggests that even with no stimulation in these regions, it is possible to decode information based on continuous perception (van Kemenade et al, 2022 ). Additionally, the successful prediction does not depend on the difference in activation height for upward versus downward tasks, as the lower visual regions did not show enhanced fMRI‐signals for occluded upward vs. downward motion in the univariate analysis.…”

Seeing and Extrapolating motion trajectories share common informative activation patterns in primary visual cortex

“…It should be noted that these results significantly extend the univariate results during the occlusion phase by showing that the pattern of activity in low-level visual areas shows some commonalities during visible motion and occlusion. These results are in line with a recent study which suggests that even with no stimulation in these regions, it is possible to decode information based on continuous perception (van Kemenade et al, 2022). Additionally, the successful prediction does not depend on the difference in activation height for upward vs downward tasks, as the lower visual regions did not show enhanced fMRI-signals for occluded upward vs. downward motion in the univariate analysis.…”

Time course of EEG complexity reflects attentional engagement during listening to speech in noise

“…Previous studies have extensively discussed the significant role of predictions in shaping perception (De Lange et al, 2018). It has been suggested that conscious perception is linked to the selection of the most probable predictive model (Hohwy et al, 2008;van Kemenade et al, 2020). A simplified Bayesian representation offers an explanation for predictive coding, where the most probable model corresponds to our prior knowledge before listening to the sound, and top-down predictions act as a likelihood (Hohwy et al, 2008).…”