Stimulus-specific prediction error neurons in mouse auditory cortex

• DOI: 10.1101/2023.01.06.523032
• Publication Date: 2023-01-07T23:20:11Z
• Authors: Nicholas J. Audette; David M. Schneider
• Keywords: Stimulus (psychology); Sensory cortex; Auditory System

Comparing expectation with experience is an important neural computation performed throughout the brain and a hallmark of predictive processing. Experiments that alter sensory outcome animal's behavior reveal enhanced responses to unexpected self-generated stimuli, indicating populations neurons in cortex may reflect prediction errors - mismatches between experience. However, stimuli could also arise through non-predictive mechanisms, such as movement-based facilitation neuron's inherent sound responses. If error exist cortex, it unknown whether they manifest general responses, or respond specificity distinct stimulus dimensions. To answer these questions, we trained mice expect simple sound-generating recorded auditory activity heard either expected sounds deviated from one multiple Our data learns suppress along acoustic dimensions simultaneously. We identify population are not responsive passive but explicitly encode errors. These abundant only animals learned motor-sensory expectation, two specific violations rather than generic signal.