Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Psychology Department, Leipzig, 04103, Germany.
The Gonda Center for Multidisciplinary Brain Research, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, 5290002, Israel.
Cereb Cortex. 2021 Oct 22;31(12):5560-5569. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhab179.
Sensory perception is a product of interactions between the internal state of an organism and the physical attributes of a stimulus. It has been shown across the animal kingdom that perception and sensory-evoked physiological responses are modulated depending on whether or not the stimulus is the consequence of voluntary actions. These phenomena are often attributed to motor signals sent to relevant sensory regions that convey information about upcoming sensory consequences. However, the neurophysiological signature of action-locked modulations in sensory cortex, and their relationship with perception, is still unclear. In the current study, we recorded neurophysiological (using Magnetoencephalography) and behavioral responses from 16 healthy subjects performing an auditory detection task of faint tones. Tones were either generated by subjects' voluntary button presses or occurred predictably following a visual cue. By introducing a constant temporal delay between button press/cue and tone delivery, and applying source-level analysis, we decoupled action-locked and auditory-locked activity in auditory cortex. We show action-locked evoked-responses in auditory cortex following sound-triggering actions and preceding sound onset. Such evoked-responses were not found for button-presses that were not coupled with sounds, or sounds delivered following a predictive visual cue. Our results provide evidence for efferent signals in human auditory cortex that are locked to voluntary actions coupled with future auditory consequences.
感觉知觉是生物体内部状态与刺激物理属性之间相互作用的产物。在动物王国中已经表明，知觉和感官诱发的生理反应会根据刺激是否是自愿行为的结果而发生变化。这些现象通常归因于发送到相关感觉区域的运动信号，这些信号传达了有关即将到来的感觉后果的信息。然而，感觉皮层中与动作相关的调制的神经生理特征及其与知觉的关系仍不清楚。在本研究中，我们记录了 16 名健康受试者在执行微弱音调听觉检测任务时的神经生理（使用脑磁图）和行为反应。音调要么是由受试者的自愿按键产生的，要么是在视觉提示后可预测地产生的。通过在按键/提示和声音传递之间引入恒定的时间延迟，并应用源水平分析，我们在听觉皮层中分离了与动作相关和听觉相关的活动。我们在声音触发动作后和声音出现前的听觉皮层中显示出与动作相关的诱发电响应。对于没有与声音相关联的按键按压，或者在预测性视觉提示后传递的声音，没有发现这种诱发电响应。我们的结果为人类听觉皮层中的传出信号提供了证据，这些信号与未来听觉后果相关联的自愿动作相关联。
