Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Neural repetition suppression reflects fulfilled perceptual expectations

Nature Neuroscience volume 11, pages 1004–1006 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Stimulus-evoked neural activity is attenuated on stimulus repetition (repetition suppression), a phenomenon that is attributed to largely automatic processes in sensory neurons. By manipulating the likelihood of stimulus repetition, we found that repetition suppression in the human brain was reduced when stimulus repetitions were improbable (and thus, unexpected). Our data suggest that repetition suppression reflects a relative reduction in top-down perceptual 'prediction error' when processing an expected, compared with an unexpected, stimulus.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Main experiment: protocol and results.
Figure 2: Control experiment protocol and results.

References

  1. Grill-Spector, K., Henson, R. & Martin, A. Trends Cogn. Sci. 10, 14–23 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Henson, R.N. Prog. Neurobiol. 70, 53–81 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Miller, E.K., Li, L. & Desimone, R. Science 254, 1377–1379 (1991).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Wiggs, C.L. & Martin, A. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 8, 227–233 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Grill-Spector, K. & Malach, R. Acta Psychol. (Amst.) 107, 293–321 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Kourtzi, Z. & Kanwisher, N. Science 293, 1506–1509 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Desimone, R. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93, 13494–13499 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Friston, K. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 360, 815–836 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Henson, R., Shallice, T. & Dolan, R. Science 287, 1269–1272 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Kanwisher, N., McDermott, J. & Chun, M.M. J. Neurosci. 17, 4302–4311 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Murray, S.O. & Wojciulik, E. Nat. Neurosci. 7, 70–74 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Friston, K., Kilner, J. & Harrison, L. J. Physiol. (Paris) 100, 70–87 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Bar, M. & Aminoff, E. Neuron 38, 347–358 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Kersten, D., Mamassian, P. & Yuille, A. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 55, 271–304 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Summerfield, C. & Koechlin, E. Neuron published online, doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.05.21 (2008).

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to E. Koechlin and S. Kouider for helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. This work was supported in part by a grant from the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS30863, M.-M.M.).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. INSERM U742, Université Pierre et Marie Currie, 9 Quai St., Bernard, Paris, 75005, France

    Christopher Summerfield

  2. Département d'Études Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 29 Rue d'Ulm, Paris, 75005, France

    Christopher Summerfield

  3. Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 320 East Superior Street, Searle 11, Chicago, 60611, Illinois, USA

    Emily H Trittschuh, Jim M Monti, M-Marsel Mesulam & Tobias Egner

Authors
  1. Christopher Summerfield
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Emily H Trittschuh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jim M Monti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. M-Marsel Mesulam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Tobias Egner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

C.S., T.E., E.H.T. and M.-M.M. conceived of the experiment, C.S. and T.E. designed the experiment, T.E., E.H.T. and J.M.M. collected the data, T.E. analyzed the data and C.S. and T.E. wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tobias Egner.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figures 1 and 2, Supplementary Table 1 and Supplementary Methods (PDF 337 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Summerfield, C., Trittschuh, E., Monti, J. et al. Neural repetition suppression reflects fulfilled perceptual expectations. Nat Neurosci 11, 1004–1006 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2163

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2163

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing