My research investigates cortical feedback and its role for perceptual predictions. A series of contributions to this started with the 2005 PLoS-Biology report in which we found activation along visually non-stimulated parts of V1 (Muckli et al. 2005, PLoS-Biol.). This activation was related to the visual illusion of apparent motion. I then initiated a series of experiments aimed at learning more about the nature of this cortical feedback-related activation. In 2007/2008 we found three important results confirming the functional role of predictive activity in human V1. The first confirmed the existence of temporally-precise predictions (Schwierzik et al. 2007, Vis.Res.), the second related millisecond-precise prediction to activation in V1 (Alink et al. 2007 SFN meeting abstract), and the third confirmed our proposed networks of predictive feedback from V5 to V1 using retinotopically modulated EEG (Wibral et al. 2009, Cereb.Cor.).

We have now extended the framework to study cortical predictions in more complex natural visual scenes. Manuscripts are under review – updated soon