Expectancy violation in visual perception: Characterising the brain signals of prediction error

The brain generates internal models of the world to interpret incoming information and predict future sensation. These models need to be constantly updated so as to maintain accurate predictions. Fundamental to this is the signalling of violated expectations when new evidence contradicts predictions. Recent evidence has identified a candidate brain signal of violated expectation in visual perception. Here I investigate the operating characteristics of this signal and the extent to which it is consistent with indexing visual surprise. Over four experiments I robustly demonstrate response characteristics supporting current theoretical frameworks of predictive coding in the brain