Semantic category and presentation frequency-based expectations are associated with distinct neural prediction effects.

Abstract

Past work has indicated that expectation can modulate neural responses to visual stimuli, but it is unclear whether these effects remain consistent across different types of unexpected stimuli. Here, we measured and compared neural prediction effects associated with semantic category and presentation frequency-based expectations in real-world object stimuli. Participants (n = 35) viewed real-world object images in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) streams. Semantically unexpected stimuli occurred when a stimulus was presented in a semantically incongruent stream. Low-frequency violations occurred when a rarely presented stimulus was displayed in a semantically congruent stream. Multivariate pattern analysis of electroencephalography (EEG) was used to quantify and compare the degree of information represented in neural activity for stimuli in different prediction conditions. Semantically expected stimuli yielded lower decoding accuracy relative to random (unpredictable) stimuli (125-313 ms post-onset) while semantically unexpected stimuli exhibited increased decoding accuracy (199-238 ms & 523-559 ms). Low-frequency violations yielded decoding accuracy which was not significantly different from semantically expected stimuli. Exploratory analyses indicated that dissimilarity between expected and presented stimuli quantified in terms of higher-level stimulus features, but not low-level visual features, modulated the observed neural prediction effects. These results demonstrate that different types of prediction violations have distinct modulatory effects on neural responses, providing novel insight into the neural implementation of predictive processing.