Speaking-induced suppression (SIS) refers to the phenomenon that the sounds produced through self-generated speech elicit less EEG activity in the auditory cortex than externally produced sounds. An analogous phenomenon demonstrates that the activity elicited by an audible syllable is suppressed when it co-occurs with a content-matching syllable produced in inner speech. We have argued that this "inner SIS" effect is likely underpinned by corollary discharges, similar to those assumed to underlie SIS. However, an alternative possibility is that "inner SIS" reflects a priming effect, wherein the increased subjective expectation of hearing a certain sound causes a reduction in evoked activity. The current study tested this alternative hypothesis using an expectancy-only version of the task in which participants (N = 70, 45 female and 25 male) did not produce inner speech. On each trial, a syllable appeared on-screen (/ba/, /bi/, or /fo/) and was followed by an audible syllable (/ba/ or /bi/). The on-screen syllable either matched (Primed condition) or mismatched (Misprimed condition) the content of the audible syllable. In the Control condition, the on-screen syllable never occurred as the audible syllable. Contrary to previous studies in which participants produced inner speech, there were no significant between-condition differences in N1 amplitude, P2 amplitude, prestimulus activity, or gamma-band power elicited by the audible syllable. Bayesian analysis indicated a meaningful difference between these findings and prior results from the inner-speech task. The present data indicate that a simple cue-based priming manipulation, in the absence of inner speech, is insufficient to reproduce previously reported inner SIS effects.

Submariners must interpret SONAR data and make rapid tactical decisions under challenging conditions. The broadband time-bearing plot is a common visualisation method which requires mental spatial transformations to generate an actionable representation. Participants ( N = 81) were trained on a VR scenario that required them to spatially localize an enemy vessel indicated on a time-bearing plot. In the supported condition, participants were given access to a novel egocentric, conformal display, which wrapped the time-bearing plot around the user's field of view. The unsupported group received no assistance. Compared to a baseline unsupported condition, we found that the VR overlay markedly improved both speed and accuracy. Test performance revealed over-reliance in the supported group, but this phenomenon varied notably between participants. Those who jointly used the initial time-bearing plot and the conformal aid during training showed good performance with the aid, and no cost of prior exposure at test. Comprehension of SONAR data can be aided by novel display formats, but care must be taken to avoid over-reliance.

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS:Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are hypothesized to result from failures in corollary discharge mechanisms to correctly predict self-initiated inner speech. However, the role of motor preparation in inner speech, during which sensorimotor predictions are formed, remains unclear. This study aimed to test the hypothesis by examining the relationship between AVH and an electrophysiological marker of action preparation: the contingent negative variation (CNV). STUDY DESIGN:Participants completed an electroencephalographic paradigm. In the Active condition, they imagined an inner syllable at a cued moment coinciding with the presentation of an audible syllable. In the Passive condition, participants passively listened to audible syllables. The amplitude of the late CNV preceding inner speech production was compared with that associated with passive listening across 3 groups: (1) schizophrenia spectrum patients with current AVH (SZAVH+, n = 58), (2) schizophrenia spectrum patients without current AVH (SZAVH-, n = 50), and (3) healthy controls (HC, n = 49). STUDY RESULTS:The HC group showed a more negative late CNV in the Active condition compared with the Passive condition. In contrast, the SZAVH+ and SZAVH- groups showed positive-going slow cortical potentials in both conditions, with less positivity in the Active condition in the former. This pattern significantly predicted AVH status. CONCLUSIONS:These findings provide evidence of motor preparation dysfunction during inner speech in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The distinct pattern of deficits observed in hallucinators may reflect imprecise corollary discharges theorized to underlie some AVH. Premovement neural indices may provide a novel window into abnormalities in prediction formation.

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS:Auditory-verbal hallucinations (AVH)-the experience of hearing voices in the absence of auditory stimulation-are a cardinal psychotic feature of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. It has long been suggested that some AVH may reflect the misperception of inner speech as external voices due to a failure of corollary-discharge-related mechanisms. We aimed to test this hypothesis with an electrophysiological marker of inner speech. STUDY DESIGN:Participants produced an inner syllable at a precisely specified time, when an audible syllable was concurrently presented. The inner syllable either matched or mismatched the content of the audible syllable. In the passive condition, participants did not produce an inner syllable. We compared the amplitude of the N1, P2, and P3-components of the auditory-evoked potential between: (1) schizophrenia-spectrum patients with current AVH (SZAVH+, n = 55), (2) schizophrenia-spectrum patients without current AVH (SZAVH-, n = 44), (3) healthy controls (HC, n = 43). STUDY RESULTS:The HC group showed reduced N1-amplitude in the Match condition (relative to Passive and Mismatch), replicating our previous results. In contrast, the SZAVH+ group showed the opposite effect: enhanced N1-amplitude in the Match condition (relative to Passive and Mismatch). The SZAVH- group showed reductions in the Mismatch condition (relative to Passive and Match). CONCLUSIONS:This study provides empirical support for the theory that AVH are related to abnormalities in the normative suppressive mechanisms associated with inner speech. This phenomenon of "inner speaking-induced suppression" may have utility as a biomarker for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders generally, and may index a tendency for AVH specifically at more extreme levels of abnormality.

Inner speech refers to the silent production of language in one’s mind. As a purely mental action without obvious physical manifestations, inner speech has been notoriously difficult to quantify. To address this issue, the present study repurposed the phenomenon of speaking-induced suppression, wherein overt speech has been consistently shown to elicit reduced auditory evoked potentials compared with externally generated speech, as well as changes in oscillatory activity in gamma and theta frequency bands. Given the functional similarities between inner and overt speech, we used an established experimental protocol to investigate whether similar metrics could be used to distinguish the content of inner speech. Healthy participants (n= 129) produced an inner syllable at a precisely specified time. An audible syllable was concurrently presented which either matched or mismatched the content of the inner syllable. The results revealed that Match and Mismatch conditions could be differentiated on the basis of their evoked oscillations in the gamma, theta, and alpha bands. Notably, there was a gamma-band oscillation in the vicinity of the P2 that differed between the Match and Mismatch conditions, suggesting that “late” gamma-band activity may index consciously perceived expectancy violations, or cognitive prediction errors. Regarding the auditory evoked potentials, the N1 component was suppressed in the Match condition while the P2 component was suppressed in the Mismatch condition, replicating previous findings. This study provides support for the existence of “inner speaking-induced suppression”, and demonstrates that inner syllables can be differentiated based on their influence on the electroencephalographic activity elicited by simultaneously-presented audible syllables.

Behavioural and neuroscientific evidence suggests visual stimuli that signal value involuntarily capture attention and are preferentially processed, even when unattended. We examined whether learned value associations for task-irrelevant auditory stimuli modulate pre-attentive processing and involuntarily capture attention. Across two experiments, the effect of learned value on the visual- and auditory-evoked mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a event-related potential (ERP) components was measured. Participants performed a primary visual detection task while an irrelevant, unattended oddball stimulus stream was concurrently presented. Deviants within this oddball stream had been previously learned to signal one of several value outcomes: monetary reward, loss or no change. Neither the auditory nor the visual MMN was influenced by these value associations. However, stimulus value affected performance on the primary task and the magnitude of the P3a in those who could identify the stimulus-value pairings at test. Supplementary mass univariate analyses and time frequency decomposition (theta phase-locking) confirmed the presence of the MMN and the absence of any influence of stimulus value on the MMN response. Findings suggest that learned value associations do not meaningfully influence the MMN prediction signaling mechanism for task-irrelevant auditory stimuli. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

Elemental models of associative learning typically employ a common prediction-error term.Following a conditioning trial, they predict that the change in the strength of an association between a cue and an outcome is dependent upon how well the outcome was predicted.When multiple cues are present, they each contribute to that prediction.The same rule applies both to increases in associative strength during excitatory conditioning and the loss of associative strength during extinction.In five experiments using an allergy prediction task, we tested the involvement of a common error term in the extinction of causal learning.Two target cues were each paired with an outcome prior to undergoing extinction in compound either with a second excitatory cue or with a cue that had previously undergone extinction in isolation.At test, there was no difference in the causal ratings of the two target cues.Manipulations designed to bias participants toward elemental processing of cue compounds, to promote the acquisition of inhibitory associations, or to reduce generalization decrement between training and test were each without effect.These results are not consistent with common error term models of associative learning.

Self-generated overt actions are preceded by a slow negativity as measured by electroencephalogram, which has been associated with motor preparation. Recent studies have shown that this neural activity is modulated by the predictability of action outcomes. It is unclear whether inner speech is also preceded by a motor-related negativity and influenced by the same factor. In three experiments, we compared the contingent negative variation elicited in a cue paradigm in an active vs. passive condition. In Experiment 1, participants produced an inner phoneme, at which an audible phoneme whose identity was unpredictable was concurrently presented. We found that while passive listening elicited a late contingent negative variation, inner speech production generated a more negative late contingent negative variation. In Experiment 2, the same pattern of results was found when participants were instead asked to overtly vocalize the phoneme. In Experiment 3, the identity of the audible phoneme was made predictable by establishing probabilistic expectations. We observed a smaller late contingent negative variation in the inner speech condition when the identity of the audible phoneme was predictable, but not in the passive condition. These findings suggest that inner speech is associated with motor preparatory activity that may also represent the predicted action-effects of covert actions.

Inattentional blindness (IB) occurs when a salient object presented in plain sight goes unnoticed when its appearance is unexpected. Across two experiments, participants completed a classic dynamic IB task while eye movements and steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) responses were continually recorded. This allowed us to measure the modulation of gaze and brain-based indices of attention during IB. While an SSVEP response to all stimuli including the unexpected object was attained, only gaze measures were able to discriminate noticers from nonnoticers. Experiment 1 used a prototypical sustained IB task and found that gaze toward the unexpected object was largely unrelated to noticing that object. Experiment 2 manipulated the contrast of the target and distractor stimuli, and instead observed a tight concordance between gazing at the unexpected object and reporting its presence. This task-based variability in gaze deployment is consistent with the broader literature and cumulatively delineates the challenges faced in translating lab-based IB research from the bench to the bedside. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The phenomenon of sensory self-suppression - also known as sensory attenuation - occurs when a person generates a perceptible stimulus (such as a sound) by performing an action (such as speaking). The sensorimotor control system is thought to actively predict and then suppress the vocal sound in the course of speaking, resulting in lowered cortical responsiveness when speaking than when passively listening to an identical sound. It has been hypothesized that auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia result from a reduction in self-suppression due to a disruption of predictive mechanisms required to anticipate and suppress a specific, self-generated sound. It has further been hypothesized that this suppression is evident primarily in theta band activity. Fifty-one people, half of whom had a diagnosis of schizophrenia, were asked to repeatedly utter a single syllable, which was played back to them concurrently over headphones while EEG was continuously recorded. In other conditions, recordings of the same spoken syllables were played back to participants while they passively listened, or were played back with their onsets preceded by a visual cue. All participants experienced these conditions with their voice artificially shifted in pitch and also with their unaltered voice. Suppression was measured using event-related potentials (N1 component), theta phase coherence and power. We found that suppression was generally reduced on all metrics in the patient sample, and when voice alteration was applied. We additionally observed reduced theta coherence and power in the patient sample across all conditions. Visual cueing affected theta coherence only. In aggregate, the results suggest that sensory self-suppression of theta power and coherence is disrupted in schizophrenia.

The phenomenon of sensory self-suppression - also known as sensory attenuation - occurs when a person generates a perceptible stimulus (such as a sound) by performing an action (such as speaking). The sensorimotor control system is thought to actively predict and then suppress the vocal sound in the course of speaking, resulting in lowered cortical responsiveness when speaking than when passively listening to an identical sound. It has been hypothesized that auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia result from a reduction in self-suppression due to a disruption of predictive mechanisms required to anticipate and suppress a specific, self-generated sound. Forty-four people, half of whom had a diagnosis of schizophrenia, were asked to repeatedly utter a single syllable. This syllable was played back to them (1) concurrently, or (2) played back to them while they passively listened, or (3) was played back to them with its onset preceded by a visual cue. All participants experienced these conditions with their voice artificially shifted in pitch and also with their unaltered voice. Suppression was measured using both event-related potentials (N1 component) and frontal-temporal theta band coherence. Both indices of suppression (theta coherence and N1 magnitude) were reduced in people with schizophrenia relative to controls. Pitch-shifting reduced both indices of suppression, such that no theta-coherence suppression was evident in the pitch-shifted condition for people with schizophrenia. Symptom severity was not significantly associated with suppression magnitude, and visual cueing did not influence measured suppression. In aggregate, the results suggest that sensory prediction is disrupted in schizophrenia.

Among neurocognitive accounts of delusions, there is a growing consensus that it is the certainty with which delusions are held, rather than their content that defines some beliefs as delusional. On a continuum model of psychosis, this inappropriate certainty ought to be present (albeit in an attenuated form) in healthy adults who score highly in schizotypy. It was hypothesised that this might be most evident in circumstances where the environment provides incomplete or probabilistic information, which thereby forces the participant to hold two imperfectly supported, concurrent hypotheses in mind. A cued visual search task was used to measure people's capacity to use partially predictive information (i.e., a cue that predicted the target may occur in one of the two locations) to facilitate speeded responding. As hypothesised, people's performance on the trials that required holding two hypotheses in mind concurrently was significantly and specifically associated with the positive components of schizotypy. This finding is consistent with a hyperfocusing of attention in schizophrenia, and may help explain why delusion-prone individuals have a tendency to "jump to conclusions" or be resistant to disconfirming information when faced with multiple, partially supported hypotheses.

Outcome predictability effects in associative learning paradigms describe better learning about outcomes with a history of greater predictability in a similar but unrelated task compared with outcomes with a history of unpredictability. Inspired by the similarities between this phenomenon and the effect of uncontrollability in learned helplessness paradigms, here, we investigate whether learning about unpredictability decreases outcome-specific motivation to learn. We used a modified version of the allergy task, in which participants first observe the foods eaten by a fictitious patient, followed by allergic reactions that he subsequently suffers, some of which are perfectly predictable and others unpredictable. We then implemented an active learning method in a second task in which participants could only learn about either the previously predictable or unpredictable outcomes on each trial. At the beginning of each trial, participants had to decide whether they wanted to learn about one outcome category or the other. Participants at the beginning of the second task chose to learn about the previously predictable outcomes first and to learn about the previously unpredictable outcomes in later trials. This showed that unpredictability affects future motivation to learn in other circumstances. Interestingly, we did not find any sign of outcome predictability effect at the end of the second phase, suggesting that participants compensate for biased outcome sampling when making overt choices in ways that they may not when learning about both outcome categories simultaneously.

Sensory suppression refers to the phenomenon that sensory input generated by our own actions, such as moving a finger to press a button to hear a tone, elicits smaller neural responses than sensory input generated by external agents. This observation is usually explained via the internal forward model in which an efference copy of the motor command is used to compute a corollary discharge, which acts to suppress sensory input. However, because moving a finger to press a button is accompanied by neural processes involved in preparing and performing the action, it is unclear whether sensory suppression is the result of movement planning, movement execution, or both. To investigate this, in two experiments, we compared ERPs to self-generated tones that were produced by voluntary, semivoluntary, or involuntary button-presses, with externally generated tones that were produced by a computer. In Experiment 1, the semivoluntary and involuntary button-presses were initiated by the participant or experimenter, respectively, by electrically stimulating the median nerve in the participant's forearm, and in Experiment 2, by applying manual force to the participant's finger. We found that tones produced by voluntary button-presses elicited a smaller N1 component of the ERP than externally generated tones. This is known as N1-suppression. However, tones produced by semivoluntary and involuntary button-presses did not yield significant N1-suppression. We also found that the magnitude of N1-suppression linearly decreased across the voluntary, semivoluntary, and involuntary conditions. These results suggest that movement planning is a necessary condition for producing sensory suppression. We conclude that the most parsimonious account of sensory suppression is the internal forward model.

Self-generated stimuli have been found to elicit a reduced sensory response compared with externally-generated stimuli. However, much of the literature has not adequately controlled for differences in the temporal predictability and temporal control of stimuli. In two experiments, we compared the N1 (and P2) components of the auditory-evoked potential to self- and externally-generated tones that differed with respect to these two factors. In Experiment 1 (n = 42), we found that increasing temporal predictability reduced N1 amplitude in a manner that may often account for the observed reduction in sensory response to self-generated sounds. We also observed that reducing temporal control over the tones resulted in a reduction in N1 amplitude. The contrasting effects of temporal predictability and temporal control on N1 amplitude meant that sensory attenuation prevailed when controlling for each. Experiment 2 (n = 38) explored the potential effect of selective attention on the results of Experiment 1 by modifying task requirements such that similar levels of attention were allocated to the visual stimuli across conditions. The results of Experiment 2 replicated those of Experiment 1, and suggested that the observed effects of temporal control and sensory attenuation were not driven by differences in attention. Given that self- and externally-generated sensations commonly differ with respect to both temporal predictability and temporal control, findings of the present study may necessitate a re-evaluation of the experimental paradigms used to study sensory attenuation.

Efficient learning requires allocating limited attentional resources to meaningful stimuli and away from irrelevant stimuli. This prioritization may occur via covert attention, evident in the activity of the visual cortex. We used steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) to assess whether associability-driven changes in stimulus processing were evident in visuocortical responses. Participants were trained on a learned-predictiveness protocol, whereby one stimulus on each trial accurately predicted the correct response for that trial, and the other was irrelevant. In a second phase the task was arranged so that all cues were objectively predictive. Participants' overt attention (eye gaze) was affected by each cue's reinforcement history, as was their covert attention (SSVEP responses). These biases persisted into Phase 2 when all stimuli were objectively predictive, thereby demonstrating that learned attentional processes are evident in basic sensory processing, and exert an effect on covert attention above and beyond the effects of overt gaze bias.

Much empirical work and theoretical discussion in the associative learning literature has focused on when and how a cue changes in its associability. A series of new findings in human learning preparations (collectively referred to as the "outcome predictability" effect) appear to show that outcomes vary in their capacity to enter into novel associations as a product of their associative history. This effect is reminiscent of how cues change in associability as a consequence of their reinforcement history. We review the new findings within a broader associative literature that has previously investigated how conditioning can modify the effectiveness of outcome events to motivate new learning. A variety of explanations arising from this review are then critically considered. The article concludes by identifying novel questions brought into focus by the outcome predictability effect.

Superstitions are common, yet we have little understanding of the cognitive mechanisms that bring them about. This study used a laboratory-based analogue for superstitious beliefs that involved people monitoring the relationship between undertaking an action (pressing a button) and an outcome occurring (a light illuminating). The task was arranged such that there was no objective contingency between pressing the button and the light illuminating - the light was just as likely to illuminate whether the button was pressed or not. Nevertheless, most people rated the causal relationship between the button press and the light illuminating to be moderately positive, demonstrating an illusion of causality. This study found that the magnitude of this illusion was predicted by people's level of endorsement of common superstitious beliefs (measured using a novel Superstitious Beliefs Questionnaire), but was not associated with mood variables or their self-rated locus of control. This observation is consistent with a more general individual difference or bias to overweight conjunctive events over disjunctive events during causal reasoning in those with a propensity for superstitious beliefs.

Previous studies of human associative learning have demonstrated that people's experience with a cueing stimulus will change how that cue is treated during subsequent learning. Typically, studies have shown that people pay more attention to cues that were informative in the past, and learn new information about these cues more rapidly (these cues are said to have a higher associability). It has recently been shown that to-be-predicted events (outcomes) can also differ in their associability as a consequence of prior experience. However, to date there is no direct evidence that this change in associability is accompanied by a change in attention, which would provide stronger evidence of a parallel with the effects observed previously with cueing stimuli. In two experiments, we examined this question by tracking eye-gaze to provide a measure of participants' overt attention, as they completed a cued visual search task in which outcome predictability was manipulated. The prior predictability of an outcome stimulus biased eye-gaze and learning rate, in a manner reminiscent of the gaze biases observed in tasks that manipulate cue associability. The present results support the view that outcomes, like cues, can vary in the degree to which they attract both attention and learning resources, as a function of their associative history. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).