Attention promotes the neural encoding of prediction errors.

ABSTRACT: The encoding of sensory information in the human brain is thought to be optimised by two principal processes: 'prediction' uses stored information to guide the interpretation of forthcoming sensory events, and 'attention' prioritizes these events according to their behavioural relevance. Despite the ubiquitous contributions of attention and prediction to various aspects of perception and cognition, it remains unknown how they interact to modulate information processing in the brain. A recent extension of predictive coding theory suggests that attention optimises the expected precision of predictions by modulating the synaptic gain of prediction error units. Because prediction errors code for the difference between predictions and sensory signals, this model would suggest that attention inc

SUBMITTER: Smout CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6411367 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature