Pre-stimulus alpha oscillations encode stimulus-specific visual predictions

Abstract

Predictions of future events have a major impact on how we process sensory signals. However, it remains unclear how the brain keeps predictions online in anticipation of future inputs. Here, we combined magnetoencephalography (MEG) and multivariate decoding techniques to investigate the content of perceptual predictions and their frequency characteristics. Participants were engaged in a shape discrimination task, while auditory cues predicted which specific shape would likely appear. Frequency analysis revealed significant oscillatory fluctuations of predicted shape representations in the pre-stimulus window in the alpha band (10 - 11Hz). Furthermore, we found that this stimulus-specific alpha power was linked to expectation effects on shape discrimination. Our findings demonstrate that sensory predictions are embedded in pre-stimulus alpha oscillations and modulate subsequent perceptual performance, providing a neural mechanism through which the brain deploys perceptual predictions.