Distinguishing Subjective and Objective Predictions in the Human Brain

In this study, we aim to investigate how subjective experiences of expectedness and unexpectedness influence neural responses to cued visual stimuli. We adapt a previously validated behavioural paradigm for use in fMRI to test whether neural responses to expected and unexpected stimuli are better explained by participants’ subjective experience or by predictions and prediction errors defined solely by the objective statistical structure of the task. Using whole-brain analyses, we will assess whether BOLD responses to unexpected events in brainstem, sensory, and frontal regions are primarily driven by the subjective magnitude of unexpectedness or by objectively defined prediction error.