Xing Tian & David Poeppel
NYU, NYU-Shanghai, and Max-Planck-Institute

We tested the functional specificity of auditory efference copies using MEG recordings in an unconventional pairing: We used a classical cognitive manipulation (mental imagery—to elicit internal simulation/estimation) paired with a well-established experimental paradigm (one shot repetition—to assess neuronal specificity). Participants performed tasks that differentially implicated internal prediction of sensory consequences (overt speaking, imagined speaking, and imagined hearing), and their modulatory effects on the perception of an auditory (syllable) probe were assessed. The neural responses to overt syllable probes vary systematically, both in terms of directionality (suppression, enhancement) and temporal dynamics (early, late), as a function of the preceding covert mental imagery adaptor. We show, in the context of a dual-pathway model, how internal simulation shapes perception.