Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PriorDynamics (The neural dynamics of perceptual priors in audition)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-06-01 al 2023-05-31
Combining novel behavioural methods with advanced neuroimaging techniques, we aim to determine the neural mechanisms that underlie the propagation and update of prior auditory information in healthy human participants. Specifically, we test the hypothesis that sensory predictions involve neural oscillations at alpha rhythm that mediate the propagation of perceptual priors. The first part of this research project investigates the neural structures underlying such oscillatory mechanism. To this end, we adapt a new time-resolved sampling technique used to examine rhythmic fluctuations in perceptual performance for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore if cortical and subcortical auditory activations exhibit rhythmic modulations that correlate with oscillations in auditory detection behaviour. The second part of this project examines whether the resolution of perceptual ambiguities by prior contextual information involves similar oscillatory mechanisms. For this purpose, we combine the time-resolved sampling technique with a classic paradigm for inducing ambiguous pitch shifts. The results will shed light on a potentially crucial and yet unknown core process of perception, useful in every interaction we have with the world.
This research project is a joint effort by the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France, and Chukyo University in Nagoya, Japan.
The next challenge was to adapt this experimental paradigm to the constraints of auditory fMRI that is notoriously affected by scanner noise. Particularly problematic for our study was the fact that scanner noise is rhythmic and, thus, contains frequencies that could interfere with the oscillatory activity we aimed to measure. To overcome this problem, we used a sparse sampling sequence that includes a period of prolonged silence, during which the auditory stimulus is presented, followed by a short interval of functional image acquisition. As a result, sparse sampling yields fewer trials than standard continuous scanning that does not include a silent period. Because lying still in the scanner for a prolonged period of time is very uncomfortable, especially for naive participants, increasing scanning time was not practical.
For that reason, we conducted a separate psychophysics study with the same experimental paradigm but twice the number of trials as in the fMRI. We also took this opportunity to include two other measures that were not planned but may provide important insights into participant perceptual and decisional processes: pupillometry and confidence rating. Recent evidence suggests that changes in pupil size during task performance may reflect fluctuations in arousal and attention which are processes known to modulate brain oscillations. As the mechanisms that control pupillary responses are located within the midbrain, we included subcortical areas in our scanning protocol, so we may be able to link the fMRI results to the pupillometry results. Most importantly, like MRI signals, pupillary responses are slow and therefore present another way to test if fast oscillatory activity can be measured with methods that have low temporal resolution using the sampling technique.
In summary, this research project combines measures of brain activation, pupil modulation and behavioural performance in a way that has not been done before. Therefore, we expect the results to provide new insights into perceptual and decisional mechanisms that underlie the perception of noisy auditory stimuli. There may be no direct socio-economic impact to gain from these results, however, they form an important basis for further research into the neural substrates underlying the rhythmic propagation and update of priors during the perception auditory ambiguous stimuli, which is the focus of the second part of this project.