Predictive acoustical processing in human cortical layers.

In our dynamic environments, predictive processing is vital for auditory perception and its associated behaviors. Predictive coding formalizes inferential processes by implementing them as information exchange across cortical layers and areas. With laminar-specific blood oxygenation level-dependent imaging we measured responses to a cascading oddball paradigm, to ground predictive auditory processes on the mesoscopic human cortical architecture. Using a modeling approach, we derive putative changes in neural dynamics while accounting for draining effects. We show that the violations of predictions are potentially hierarchically organized and associated with responses in superficial layers of the planum polare and middle layers of the lateral temporal cortex. Moreover, we relate the updating of the brain's internal model to changes in deep layers. Our results support the role of temporal cortical architecture in the implementation of predictive coding and highlight the ability of laminar fMRI to investigate mesoscopic processes in a large extent of temporal areas.