Spatiotemporal brain hierarchies of auditory memory recognition and predictive coding

L Bonetti*, G Fernández-Rubio, F Carlomagno, M Dietz, D Pantazis, P Vuust, M L Kringelbach

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaperJournal articleResearchpeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Our brain is constantly extracting, predicting, and recognising key spatiotemporal features of the physical world in order to survive. While neural processing of visuospatial patterns has been extensively studied, the hierarchical brain mechanisms underlying conscious recognition of auditory sequences and the associated prediction errors remain elusive. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we describe the brain functioning of 83 participants during recognition of previously memorised musical sequences and systematic variations. The results show feedforward connections originating from auditory cortices, and extending to the hippocampus, anterior cingulate gyrus, and medial cingulate gyrus. Simultaneously, we observe backward connections operating in the opposite direction. Throughout the sequences, the hippocampus and cingulate gyrus maintain the same hierarchical level, except for the final tone, where the cingulate gyrus assumes the top position within the hierarchy. The evoked responses of memorised sequences and variations engage the same hierarchical brain network but systematically differ in terms of temporal dynamics, strength, and polarity. Furthermore, induced-response analysis shows that alpha and beta power is stronger for the variations, while gamma power is enhanced for the memorised sequences. This study expands on the predictive coding theory by providing quantitative evidence of hierarchical brain mechanisms during conscious memory and predictive processing of auditory sequences.

Original languageEnglish
Article number4313
JournalNature Communications
Volume15
Issue1
Number of pages23
ISSN2041-1723
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2024

Keywords

  • Humans
  • Magnetoencephalography
  • Adult
  • Auditory Perception/physiology
  • Auditory Cortex/physiology
  • Acoustic Stimulation
  • Brain Mapping
  • Music
  • Memory/physiology
  • Hippocampus/physiology

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