Cortical oscillations and sensory predictions

Cortical oscillations and sensory predictions

2012, Vol. 16, No. 7 | Luc H Arnal, Anne-Lise Giraud
The article by Luc H. Arnal and Anne-Lise Giraud reviews the neurophysiological bases of sensory predictions, focusing on low-level oscillatory mechanisms. They argue that neural rhythms play distinct and adapted roles in predicting both the "what" and "when" of sensory events. The authors discuss how predictive coding and predictive timing mechanisms are implemented using cortical oscillations, particularly delta-theta and beta oscillations. Predictive timing, which involves temporal regularities, is facilitated by the phase alignment of delta-theta oscillations, which aligns neuronal excitability with expected sound modulations. In contrast, predictive coding, which focuses on the nature of sensory events, is associated with gamma-band activity, which is modulated by the match between expectations and bottom-up input. The article also explores the interaction between attention and expectation, suggesting that attention increases neural responses to attended stimuli, while expectations reduce responses to expected stimuli. Additionally, the authors discuss the role of beta oscillations in both rhythmic modulation of sensory sampling and top-down transmission of content-specific predictions. The article concludes by illustrating how these mechanisms combine to facilitate speech processing, where predictive timing aligns neuronal excitability with salient parts of speech, while predictive coding targets specific neuronal populations for content-related priors.The article by Luc H. Arnal and Anne-Lise Giraud reviews the neurophysiological bases of sensory predictions, focusing on low-level oscillatory mechanisms. They argue that neural rhythms play distinct and adapted roles in predicting both the "what" and "when" of sensory events. The authors discuss how predictive coding and predictive timing mechanisms are implemented using cortical oscillations, particularly delta-theta and beta oscillations. Predictive timing, which involves temporal regularities, is facilitated by the phase alignment of delta-theta oscillations, which aligns neuronal excitability with expected sound modulations. In contrast, predictive coding, which focuses on the nature of sensory events, is associated with gamma-band activity, which is modulated by the match between expectations and bottom-up input. The article also explores the interaction between attention and expectation, suggesting that attention increases neural responses to attended stimuli, while expectations reduce responses to expected stimuli. Additionally, the authors discuss the role of beta oscillations in both rhythmic modulation of sensory sampling and top-down transmission of content-specific predictions. The article concludes by illustrating how these mechanisms combine to facilitate speech processing, where predictive timing aligns neuronal excitability with salient parts of speech, while predictive coding targets specific neuronal populations for content-related priors.
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[slides and audio] Cortical oscillations and sensory predictions