Distributed representations of prediction error signals across the cortical hierarchy are synergistic

  • An important question concerning inter-areal communication in the cortex is whether these interactions are synergistic, i.e. brain signals can either share common information (redundancy) or they can encode complementary information that is only available when both signals are considered together (synergy). Here, we dissociated cortical interactions sharing common information from those encoding complementary information during prediction error processing. To this end, we computed co-information, an information-theoretical measure that distinguishes redundant from synergistic information among brain signals. We analyzed auditory and frontal electrocorticography (ECoG) signals in five common awake marmosets performing two distinct auditory oddball tasks and investigated to what extent event-related potentials (ERP) and broadband (BB) dynamics encoded redundant and synergistic information during auditory prediction error processing. In both tasks, we observed multiple patterns of synergy across the entire cortical hierarchy with distinct dynamics. The information conveyed by ERPs and BB signals was highly synergistic even at lower stages of the hierarchy in the auditory cortex, as well as between auditory and frontal regions. Using a brain-constrained neural network, we simulated the spatio-temporal patterns of synergy and redundancy observed in the experimental results and further demonstrated that the emergence of synergy between auditory and frontal regions requires the presence of strong, long-distance, feedback and feedforward connections. These results indicate that the distributed representations of prediction error signals across the cortical hierarchy can be highly synergistic.

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Metadaten
Author:Frank Gelens, Juho ÄijäläORCiD, Louis Roberts, Misako KomatsuORCiD, Cem UranORCiD, Michael A. JensenORCiD, Kai J. MillerORCiD, Robin A. A. InceORCiD, Max Garagnani, Martin VinckORCiD, Andres Canales-JohnsonORCiD
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-756751
URL:https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.12.523735v4
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.12.523735
Parent Title (English):bioRxiv
Document Type:Preprint
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2023/06/19
Date of first Publication:2023/06/19
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2023/09/13
Issue:2023.01.12.523735 Version 4
Edition:Version 4
Page Number:28
HeBIS-PPN:51211532X
Institutes:Angeschlossene und kooperierende Institutionen / MPI für Hirnforschung
Dewey Decimal Classification:1 Philosophie und Psychologie / 15 Psychologie / 150 Psychologie
6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - CC BY-NC-ND - Namensnennung - Nicht kommerziell - Keine Bearbeitungen 4.0 International