Higher brain regions are only activated when predictions are
false.
(June 25, 2015) Our
brain recognizes objects within milliseconds, even if it only receives
rudimentary visual information. Researchers believe that reliable and fast
recognition works because the brain is constantly making predictions about
objects in the field of view and is comparing these with incoming information. Only if mismatches
occur in this process do higher areas of the brain have to be notified of the
error in order to make active corrections to the predictions. Now scientists at
the Goethe University have confirmed this hypothesis. As they report in the
current edition of the "Journal of Neuroscience", those brain waves
that are sent to higher brain areas increase their activity when a predictive
error occurs. These results also promise a better understanding of
schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders.
In order to induce predictive errors in their subjects, the
researchers showed them so-called Mooney faces, named after their inventor
Craig Mooney. These are photographs of faces which have been reduced entirely
to black and white. We usually recognize these easily. We can even give details
about the gender, age and facial expression – despite the fact that only the
borders between black and white contain any information about the face.
Moreover, even this minimal amount of information is ambiguous, because the
boundaries either represent the transition between light and cast shadows or
they confine the object itself.