Schedule of Events | Symposia

Periodic statistical events trigger downstream when and what predictions

Poster Session E - Monday, March 31, 2025, 2:30 – 4:30 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Lorenzo Titone¹ (titone@cbs.mpg.de), Lars Meyer^1,2; ¹MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, ²University Hospital Münster

Neural synchronization to periodic sequences facilitates downstream processing of subsequent targets that temporally align with the sequence—a mechanism termed entrainment. It is debated whether entrainment drives predictions of both when (timing) and what (identity), and whether the two types of predictions are mediated by distinct or interdependent mechanisms. We recorded the electroencephalogram of 36 participants who listened to periodic streams of syllables. Triplets of syllables formed pseudowords, which could be segmented and learnt from periodic patterns of low transitional probabilities. Streams were followed by a delayed pseudoword target that either matched or violated the time point (when) or identity (what) that could be expected from the prior sequence. Learning was assessed through a recognition task. Participants accurately recognized pseudowords (d’ = 2.46). Frequency-domain analyses revealed phase synchronization at the pseudoword rate (1.1 Hz) during the entrainment phase and the delay, suggesting pseudoword segmentation and sustained synchronization. This temporal-statistical context modulated downstream evoked responses to when violations, with increased P200 amplitude over central electrodes, and to what violations, with decreased N400 amplitude over central-posterior electrodes for pseudowords vs. deviants. Lastly, we found an interaction effect over frontal electrodes with increased P1 amplitude for targets that either matched or violated both types of predictions compared to either one alone. These results suggest that neural synchronization to periodic statistical events induces sustained when and what predictions: Form-based recognition (what) is modulated by temporal (when) predictions at early latencies, but the two types of predictions affect target processing distinctly at later timescales.

Topic Area: LANGUAGE: Lexicon