Learned spatiotemporal sequence recognition and prediction in primary visual cortex
Open accessAbstract
Learning to recognize and predict temporal sequences is fundamental to sensory perception and is impaired in several neuropsychiatric disorders, but little is known about where and how this occurs in the brain. We discovered that repeated presentations of a visual sequence over a course of days resulted in evoked response potentiation in mouse V1 that was highly specific for stimulus order and timing. Notably, after V1 was trained to recognize a sequence, cortical activity regenerated the full sequence even when individual stimulus elements were omitted. Our results advance the understanding of how the brain makes 'intelligent guesses' on the basis of limited information to form visual percepts and suggest that it is possible to study the mechanistic basis of this high-level cognitive ability by studying low-level sensory systems.
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Several rodent studies provide evidence that predictive activity emerges over the course of exposure to statistical regularities in visual stimuli and that this correlates with the magnitude of prediction error responses.
“Several rodent studies have provided evidence that predictive activity emerges over the course of exposure to statistical regularities in visual stimuli 47 , 52 , 124 (see also Ref. 88 for single unit recording in monkeys) and that this correlates with the magnitude of prediction error responses.”
From Evaluating the neurophysiological evidence for predictive processing as a model of perception (2020) · cites this paper as [52]
The Results report that repeated exposure to a visual sequence produced learned responses in mice, including an anticipatory response when a predicted element was omitted. They do not report a correlation between predictive activity and the magnitude of prediction-error responses, so that part of the attributed claim is unsupported. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredA number of direct recording studies have produced the opposite pattern to Bell et al., with unexpected or random stimuli eliciting reduced responses relative to expected or neutral stimuli in macaque IT and rodent V1.
“The picture is further complicated by the fact that a number of direct recording studies have produced the opposite pattern of results to Bell et al., with unexpected or random stimuli eliciting reduced responses relative to expected or neutral stimuli in macaque IT 95 , 96 and rodent V1 52 (see Ref. 97 for corresponding results in a human study).”
From Evaluating the neurophysiological evidence for predictive processing as a model of perception (2020) · cites this paper as [52]
Human and animal studies indicate that the brain is finely tuned to efficiently extract regularities from streams of sensory input through passive sensory experience, self-generated actions, and exploration of the environment, and that these expectations influence sensory processing.
“Human and animal studies indicate that the brain is finely tuned to efficiently extract regularities from streams of sensory input 120 , 121 through passive sensory experience, 52 , 122 self‐generated actions, 123 , 124 and exploration of the environment, 47 , 124 and that these expectations influence sensory processing.”
From Evaluating the neurophysiological evidence for predictive processing as a model of perception (2020) · cites this paper as [52]
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- Authors
- Gavornik, J. P., & Bear, M. F.
- Affiliations
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bear, Mark F
- Venue
- Nature Neuroscience
- Published
- 2014-03-23
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 732-737
- ISSN
- 1097-6256 (ISSN-L)
- 1546-1726
- PMC
- PMC4167369
- OpenAlex
- W2003958121
- Cited by
- 227
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 18 · 2014: 6
- FWCI
- 9.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- PMC
- Funders
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- National Institute of Mental Health (K99MH099654)
- National Eye Institute (R01EY023037)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- primary visual cortex, sequence learning, stimulus order, stimulus timing, visual perception, mouse visual system, perceptual inference
- MeSH terms
- Algorithms, Animals, Attention, Electrodes, Implanted, Evoked Potentials, Visual, Male, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Photic Stimulation, Piperazines, Scopolamine, Serial Learning, Time Factors, Visual Cortex, Visual Pathways, Visual Perception, Cholinergic Antagonists, Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists, Recognition, Psychology, Mice
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