Rhythmic modulation of prediction errors: a possible role for the beta-range in speech processing

Natural speech perception requires processing the current acoustic input while keeping in mind the preceding one and predicting the next. This complex computational problem could be handled by a multi timescale hierarchical inferential process that coordinates information flow up and down the language hierarchy. While theta and low-gamma neural frequency scales are convincingly involved in bottom-up syllable-tracking and phoneme-level speech encoding, the beta rhythm is more loosely associated with top-down processes without being assigned yet a specific computational function. Here we tested the hypothesis that the beta rhythm drives the precision of states during the speech recognition hierarchical inference process. We used a predictive coding model that recognizes syllables on-line in natural sentences, in which the precision of prediction errors is rhythmically modulated, resulting in alternating bottom-up vs. top-down processing regimes. We show that recognition performance increases with the rate of precision updates, with an optimal efficacy in the beta range (around 20 Hz). The model further performs when prediction errors pertaining respectively to syllable timing and syllable identity oscillate in antiphase. These results suggest that online syllable recognition globally benefits from the alternation of bottom-up and top-down dominant regime at beta rate, and that the gain is stronger when different features are also analyzed in alternation. These results speak to a discontinuous account of inferential operations in speech processing.