Characterizing predictive auditory processing with EEG

• Main Author: Reiche, Martin
• Other Authors: Technische Universität Chemnitz, Fakultät für Naturwissenschaften
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz 2017
• Subjects: prädiktive Informationsverarbeitung; Sensorik; auditive Wahrnehmung; ökologische Validität; graduelle Manipulation; EEG; ereigniskorrelierte Potentiale; passives Hören; menschliche Probanden; predictive coding; sensory processing; auditory perception; ecological validity; gradual manipulation; event-related potentials; passive listening; human subjects; ddc:150; Prognose; Wahrnehmung; Hören; Validität; Versuchsperson
• Online Access: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:ch1-qucosa-226275; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:ch1-qucosa-226275; http://www.qucosa.de/fileadmin/data/qucosa/documents/22627/Dissertation_Martin_Reiche.pdf; http://www.qucosa.de/fileadmin/data/qucosa/documents/22627/signatur.txt.asc

Predictive coding theorizes the capacity of neural structures to form predictions about forthcoming sensory events based on previous sensory input. This concept increasingly gains attention within experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience. In auditory research, predictive coding has become a useful model that elegantly explains different aspects of auditory sensory processing and auditory perception. Many of these aspects are backed up by experimental evidence. However, certain fundamental features of predictive auditory processing have not been addressed so far by experimental investigations, like correlates of neural predictions that show up before the onset of an expected event. Four experiments were designed to investigate the proposed mechanism under more realistic conditions as compared to previous studies by manipulating different aspects of predictive (un)certainty, thereby examining the ecological validity of predictive processing in audition. Moreover, predictive certainty was manipulated gradually across five conditions from unpredictable to fully predictable in linearly increasing steps which drastically decreases the risk of discovering incidental findings. The results obtained from the conducted experiments partly confirm the results from previous studies by demonstrating effects of predictive certainty on ERPs in response to omissions of potentially predictable stimuli. Furthermore, results partly suggest that the auditory system actively engages in stimulus predictions in a literal sense as evidenced by gradual modulations of pre-stimulus ERPs associated with different degrees of predictive certainty. However, the current results remain inconsistent because the observed effects were relatively small and could not consistently be replicated in all follow-up experiments. The observed effects could be regained after accumulating the data across all experiments in order to increase statistical power. However, certain questions remain unanswered regarding a valid interpretation of the results in terms of predictive coding. Based on the current state of results, recommendations for future investigations are provided at the end of the current thesis in order to improve certain methodological aspects of investigating predictive coding in audition, including considerations on the design of experiments, possible suitable measures to investigate predictive coding in audition, recommendations for data acquisition and data analysis as well as recommendations for publication of results.