Measures of repetition suppression in the fusiform face area are inflated by co-occurring effects of statistically learned visual associations

Abstract

Repeated presentation of a stimulus leads to reductions in measures of neural responses. This phenomenon, termed repetition suppression (RS), has recently been conceptualized using models based on predictive coding, which describe RS as due to expectations that are weighted toward recently-seen stimuli. To evaluate these models, researchers have manipulated the likelihood of stimulus repetition within experiments. They have reported findings that are inconsistent across hemodynamic and electrophysiological measures, and difficult to interpret as clear support or refutation of predictive coding models. We instead investigated a different type of expectation effect that is apparent in stimulus..