Detecting violations of sensory expectancies following cerebellar degeneration:
Author
Summary, in English
Two hypotheses concerning cerebellar function and predictive behavior are the sensory prediction
hypothesis and the timing hypothesis. The former postulates that the cerebellum is critical in generating
expectancies regarding forthcoming sensory information. The latter postulates that this structure
is critical in generating expectancies that are precisely timed; for example, the expected duration of an
event or the time between events. As such, the timing hypothesis constitutes a more specific form of prediction.
The present experiment contrasted these two hypotheses by examining the mismatch negativity
(MMN) response in patients with cerebellar cortical atrophy and matched controls. While watching a
silent movie, a stream of task-irrelevant sounds was presented. A standard sound was presented 60% of
the time, whereas the remaining sounds deviated from the standard on one of four dimensions: duration,
intensity, pitch, or location. The timing between stimuli was either periodic or aperiodic. Based on the
sensory prediction hypothesis, the MMN for the patients should be abnormal across all four dimensions.
In contrast, the timing hypothesis would predict a selective impairment of the duration MMN. Moreover,
the timing hypothesis would also predict that the enhancement of the MMN observed in controls when
the stimuli are presented periodically should be attenuated in the patients. Compared to controls, the
patients exhibited a delayed latency in the MMN to duration deviants and a similar trend for the intensity
deviants, while pitch and location MMNs did not differ between groups. Periodicity had limited and
somewhat inconsistent effects. The present results are at odds with a general role for the cerebellum in
sensory prediction and provide partial support for the timing hypothesis.
hypothesis and the timing hypothesis. The former postulates that the cerebellum is critical in generating
expectancies regarding forthcoming sensory information. The latter postulates that this structure
is critical in generating expectancies that are precisely timed; for example, the expected duration of an
event or the time between events. As such, the timing hypothesis constitutes a more specific form of prediction.
The present experiment contrasted these two hypotheses by examining the mismatch negativity
(MMN) response in patients with cerebellar cortical atrophy and matched controls. While watching a
silent movie, a stream of task-irrelevant sounds was presented. A standard sound was presented 60% of
the time, whereas the remaining sounds deviated from the standard on one of four dimensions: duration,
intensity, pitch, or location. The timing between stimuli was either periodic or aperiodic. Based on the
sensory prediction hypothesis, the MMN for the patients should be abnormal across all four dimensions.
In contrast, the timing hypothesis would predict a selective impairment of the duration MMN. Moreover,
the timing hypothesis would also predict that the enhancement of the MMN observed in controls when
the stimuli are presented periodically should be attenuated in the patients. Compared to controls, the
patients exhibited a delayed latency in the MMN to duration deviants and a similar trend for the intensity
deviants, while pitch and location MMNs did not differ between groups. Periodicity had limited and
somewhat inconsistent effects. The present results are at odds with a general role for the cerebellum in
sensory prediction and provide partial support for the timing hypothesis.
Department/s
Publishing year
2008
Language
English
Pages
2569-2579
Publication/Series
Neuropsychologia
Volume
46
Issue
10
Links
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Elsevier
Topic
- Psychology
Keywords
- Cerebellum Sensory prediction Timing MMN Event-related potentials Audition
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1873-3514