Journal article
Frontal cortex tracks surprise separately for different sensory modalities but engages a common inhibitory control mechanism
PLoS computational biology, Vol.15(7), pp.e1006927-e1006927
07/2019
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006927
PMCID: PMC6687204
PMID: 31356593
Abstract
The brain constantly generates predictions about the environment to guide action. Unexpected events lead to surprise and can necessitate the modification of ongoing behavior. Surprise can occur for any sensory domain, but it is not clear how these separate surprise signals are integrated to affect motor output. By applying a trial-to-trial Bayesian surprise model to human electroencephalography data recorded during a cross-modal oddball task, we tested whether there are separate predictive models for different sensory modalities (visual, auditory), or whether expectations are integrated across modalities such that surprise in one modality decreases surprise for a subsequent unexpected event in the other modality. We found that while surprise was represented in a common frontal signature across sensory modalities (the fronto-central P3 event-related potential), the single-trial amplitudes of this signature more closely conformed to a model with separate surprise terms for each sensory domain. We then investigated whether surprise-related fronto-central P3 activity indexes the rapid inhibitory control of ongoing behavior after surprise, as suggested by recent theories. Confirming this prediction, the fronto-central P3 amplitude after both auditory and visual unexpected events was highly correlated with the fronto-central P3 found after stop-signals (measured in a separate stop-signal task). Moreover, surprise-related and stopping-related activity loaded onto the same component in a cross-task independent components analysis. Together, these findings suggest that medial frontal cortex maintains separate predictive models for different sensory domains, but engages a common mechanism for inhibitory control of behavior regardless of the source of surprise.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Frontal cortex tracks surprise separately for different sensory modalities but engages a common inhibitory control mechanism
- Creators
- Jan R Wessel - Department of Neurology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA, United States of AmericaDavid E Huber - Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, United States of America
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- PLoS computational biology, Vol.15(7), pp.e1006927-e1006927
- DOI
- 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006927
- PMID
- 31356593
- PMCID
- PMC6687204
- NLM abbreviation
- PLoS Comput Biol
- ISSN
- 1553-734X
- eISSN
- 1553-7358
- Publisher
- United States
- Grant note
- R01 NS102201 / NINDS NIH HHS RF1 MH114277 / NIMH NIH HHS
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 07/2019
- Academic Unit
- Roy J. Carver Department of Biomedical Engineering; Neurology; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984063230802771
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