Humans show a remarkable ability to understand continuous speech even under adverse listening conditions. This ability critically relies on dynamically updated predictions of incoming sensory information, but exactly how top-down predictions improve speech processing is still unclear. Brain oscillations are a likely mechanism for these top-down predictions [1, 2]. Quasi-rhythmic components in s...

Perception entails interactions between activated brain visual areas and the records of previous sensations, allowing for processes like figure-ground segregation and object recognition. The aim of this study was to characterize top-down effects that originate in the visual cortex and that are involved in the generation and perception of form. We performed a functional magnetic resonance imagin...

The theory of predictive coding assumes that higher-order representations influence lower-order representations by generating predictions about sensory input. In congenital deafness, one identified dysfunction is a reduced activation of deep layers in the auditory cortex. Since these layers play a central role for processing top-down influences, congenital deafness might interfere with the inte...

Abstract This study uses acoustic energy measures for /b, d, g/ after /f, s, ∫, l, r/ in Catalan in order to test whether postconsonantal voiced stop lenition is ruled by minimization of articulatory effort, acoustico-perceptual continuity of an ongoing prosodic constituent or some other principle of articulatory organization. Data for eight speakers reveal that lenition is more prone to operat...

Ultrasound is one of the most widely used multipurpose imaging modalities that is ideal for monitoring and diagnosing early pregnancy events. The first sign and measurable element of an early pregnancy is the Gestational Sac (GS). Currently, the size of GS is manually measured from an ultrasound image of the GS. This paper argues that the Mean Sac Diameter (MSD) derived from the manual measurem...

Distinct areas within the visual association cortex are specialized for representing specific stimulus features, such as V4 for color and V5/hMT+ for motion. Recent studies have demonstrated that areas associated with attended features exhibit enhanced cortical activity, whereas those associated with ignored features elicit reduced activity. However, the source of this attentional (or top-down)...