Prior expectations induce pre-stimulus sensory templates

摘要: Perception can be described as a process of inference, integrating bottom-up sensory inputs and top-down expectations. However, it is unclear how this neurally implemented. It has been proposed that expectations lead to pre-stimulus baseline increases in neurons tuned the expected stimulus, which turn affects processing subsequent stimuli. Recent fMRI studies have revealed stimulus-specific patterns activation cortex result expectation, but method lacks temporal resolution necessary distinguish pre- from post-stimulus processes. Here, we combined human MEG with multivariate decoding techniques probe representational content neural signals time-resolved manner. We observed representation stimuli signal well before they were presented, demonstrating indeed induce pre-activation stimulus templates. These results suggest mechanism for predictive perception