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Poster D in Poster Session D: Wednesday, August 5, 2:00 – 3:45 pm, Kimmel Center, Shorin & Rosenthal Rooms

Efference Copy as Precision Weighting Explains Predictive Sharpening and Perceptual Attenuation in Action-Effect Prediction

Yifei He¹, Edward Ody², Tilo Kircher¹, Benjamin Straube²; ¹Phillips-Universität Marburg, ²Philipps University Marburg

Presenter: Yifei He

Perception is increasingly understood as processes that balance prior expectations against incoming sensory evidence, weighting each by their estimated precision (reliability). How this balance works for the sensory consequences of our own actions remains unclear. We propose Efference Copy as Precision Weighting (ECPW), a minimal rule for action-effect prediction. In contrast to classic forward models of action, efference copy does not carry a sensory template, but acts as a precision-weighting tag that reallocates precision along the action-sensation transition. We empirically test ECPW in an action-contingency paradigm by manipulating visual or auditory task attention to a constant bimodal stimulus. We compare active (self-generated) against passive (device-initiated) finger movements using time-resolved EEG to decode task-relevant information (visual vs. auditory). Our results show that, for active movements, decodability of task attention is higher before movement (predictive sharpening), but lower during stimulus perception (sensory attenuation). With model-based forward simulations, our model, but not alternative cancellation or sharpening models, reproduces this empirical flip. ECPW further maps a parameter space that yields concrete, testable predictions for future manipulations of action-effect prediction and probabilistic cueing in perception. Together, ECPW offers a specified, unitary rule for how action shapes perception.

Topic Area: Methods, Tools, Theory & Neural Coding