The brain constantly creates perceptual predictions about forthcoming stimuli to guide perception efficiently. In real-life contexts, however, multiple and even conflicting predictions might concurrently exist to be tested, requiring a multi-prediction coordination process. It remains largely unknown how multiple hypotheses are conveyed and harmonized to guide moment-by-moment perception.

To address the issue, Huan Luo's group used well established priming paradigms in combination with a time-resolved behavioral approach to investigate the fine temporal dynamics of the multi-prediction harmonization course in human subjects. They first replicate classical priming effects in slowly developing trends of priming time courses. Second, they reveal a new theta-band (∼4 Hz) oscillatory component in the priming behavioral data. Third, they show that these theta-band priming oscillations triggered by congruent and incongruent primes are in an out-of-phase relationship. These findings suggest that perceptual predictions return to low-sensory areas not continuously but recurrently in a theta-band rhythm (every 200–300 ms) and that multiple predictions are dynamically coordinated in time by being conveyed in different phases of the theta-band oscillations to achieve dissociated but temporally organized neural representations.

Yan Huang, Lin Chen, Huan Luo*. Behavioral oscillation in priming: competing perceptual predictions conveyed in alternating theta-band rhythms. The Journal of Neuroscience, 11 Feb 2015, 35(6): 2830-2837

http://www.jneurosci.org/content/35/6/2830.abstract