Suppressed sensory response to predictable object stimuli throughout the ventral visual stream

Prediction plays a crucial role in perception, as prominently suggested by predictive coding theories. However, the exact form and mechanism of predictive modulations of sensory processing remain unclear, with some studies reporting a downregulation of the sensory response for predictable input, while others observed an enhanced response. In a similar vein, downregulation of the sensory response for predictable input has been linked to either sharpening or dampening of the sensory representation, which are opposite in nature. In the present study we set out to investigate the neural consequences of perceptual expectation of object stimuli throughout the visual hierarchy, using fMRI in human volunteers. Participants of both sexes were exposed to pairs of sequentially presented object images in a statistical learning paradigm, in which the first object predicted the identity of the second object. Image transitions were not task relevant; thus all learning of statistical regularities was incidental. We found strong suppression of neural responses to expected compared to unexpected stimuli throughout the ventral visual stream, including primary visual cortex (V1), lateral occipital complex (LOC), and anterior ventral visual areas. Expectation suppression in LOC scaled positively with image preference and voxel selectivity, lending support to the dampening account of expectation suppression in object perception. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT It has been suggested that the brain fundamentally relies on predictions and constructs models of the world in order to make sense of sensory information. Previous research on the neural basis of prediction has documented suppressed neural responses to expected compared to unexpected stimuli. In the present study we demonstrate robust expectation suppression throughout the entire ventral visual stream, and underlying this suppression a dampening of the sensory representation in object-selective visual cortex, but not in primary visual cortex. Taken together, our results provide novel evidence in support of theories conceptualizing perception as an active inference process, which selectively dampens cortical representations of predictable objects. This dampening may support our ability to automatically filter out irrelevant, predictable objects.