Adapting to others: the role of prediction in human communication

PREDI-COM is a multidisciplinary project in the human and social sciences carried out by the SCALab laboratory of the University of Lille, and supported by the Maison Européenne des Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société and the University of Lille.

The scientific goal of this project is to better characterize the use of prediction across different disciplinary fields in the human and natural sciences (philosophy, linguistics, psychology and neuroscience). More specifically, prediction will be discussed in the context of human communication marked by a strong variability of cues provided by individuals (sound, linguistic, non-verbal, and social) and the need to adapt between them to understand each other. To this end, two laboratories from the University of Lille, one specialised in cognitive psychology (Laboratoire Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives, SCALab, UMR 9193) and the other in linguistics and philosophy (Laboratoire Savoirs, Textes, Langage, STL, UMR 8163) will organise three half-day sessions around prediction in human communication.

First session

• Friday, February 14th, 2020

The first session will present the role of prediction plays in neuroscience and will feature exchange on this topic between philosophers, linguists, psychologists and neuroscientists.

Two leading neuroscientists will present their work on this issue (Dr. Wolfram Schultz, Cambridge University, and Dr. Karl Friston, University College London).

Wolfram Schultz, Department of Physiology, Development & Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, UK
Predictions and reward

Rewards induce learning (positive reinforcement), approach behaviour, economic decisions and positive emotions (pleasure, desire). We investigate basic neuronal reward signals during learning and decision-making, using behavioural and neurophysiological methods.

The phasic dopamine reward prediction error signal is composed of two components, resembling two-component responses in main sensory neurons. The early dopamine response component detects events indiscriminately and is influenced by physical impact, novelty, reward generalisation and reward context. The second component codes reward value. Although the first component detects punishers by their physical impact, none of the activations reflects the aversive nature of punishers. Dopamine activity shows also slower, heterogeneous and inconsistent changes related to widely ranging behavioural events not easily conceptualised by formal behavioural theories. A much slower, basically tonic dopamine neurotransmission is compromised in Parkinson’s disease and often subjected to pharmacological tests.

Our recent experimental economics studies reveal that monkeys are risk seeking with small rewards and risk neutral and then risk avoiders with larger rewards. Specifically structured behavioural tests allow us to estimate formal economic utility functions from certainty equivalents assessed during choices under risk (Von Neumann-Morgenstern utility). The animals' choices are meaningful in satisfying first, second and third order stochastic dominance, which defines rational choices governed by value, symmetric (variance) risk and skewness risk, respectively. Utility itself is coded in dopamine neurones as utility prediction error that incorporates risk into subjective value. Consistent with this neuronal signal, the dopamine response satisfies first- and second-order stochastic dominance. These data unite concepts from animal learning theory and economic decision theory at the level of single reward neurons.

Karl Friston, Institute of Neurology, University College London, UK
Active inference & deep prediction

 

This presentation considers deep temporal models in the brain. It builds on previous formulations of active inference to simulate behaviour and electrophysiological responses under deep (hierarchical) generative models of discrete state transitions. The structured temporal aspect of these models means that evidence is accumulated over time, enabling inferences about narratives and policies. We illustrate this behaviour in terms of Bayesian belief updating – and associated neuronal processes – to reproduce epistemic foraging for reward. These simulations reproduce these sort of delay period activity and local field potentials seen empirically; including evidence accumulation, place cell activity and transfer of dopamine responses. These simulations are presented as an example of how to use basic (first) principles to constrain our understanding of functional architectures in the brain.

https://webtv.univ-lille.fr/video/10789/karl-friston-active-inference-amp-deep-prediction

 

 

Second session

• Tuesday, October 6th, 2020

The second session will aim to present the notion of prediction in human communication and its links with the phenomenon of convergence between individuals. These notions will be discussed between philosophers, linguists, and psychologists. Two international experts in psychology and linguistics will present their work on prediction in human communication and on the phenomenon of convergence (Dr. Martin Pickering, University of Edinburgh, and Dr. Antje Schweitzer, University of Stuttgart).

 

Martin Pickering, University of Edinburgh, UK

Prediction in Language

 

What do comprehenders predict and how do they use those predictions?  I first present a series of “visual world” experiments that suggest that comprehenders initially predict in an automatic, associative manner and then shift to predicting what the speaker or character under discussion is likely to say.  I argue that comprehenders predict by simulating the speaker, adjusting for differences between self and other, and then engaging aspects of the system that they use to produce language. 

 

Antje Schweitzer, University of Stuttgart, DE
Phonetic convergence in conversational speech

 

In this talk, I will discuss results of phonetic convergence studies on spontaneous speech. In contrast to experiments in more controlled settings, studies that investigate less artificial scenarios seem to find much more subtle and more variable convergence effects, and they often depend on extra-linguistic aspects such as social factors. Moreover, there is also no established method of quantifying convergence in such scenarios, making comparison across studies difficult.

 

Third session

 

• Thursday, November 26 th, 2020

The third session will present the notion of temporal predictions and its links with rhythmic behavior in animal and human communication. These notions will be discussed between philosophers, linguists, and psychologists.

Two international experts in evolutionary biology and neuroscience will present their work on this issue (Dr. Andrea Ravignani, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Dr. Benjamin Morillon, Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes).

 

Andrea Ravignani, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, NE
Predicting, reacting or entraining? Rhythm and timing from an evolutionary, comparative perspective

 

 

Capacities for rhythm, beat perception and synchronization are key in human music, speech and action. Just in the last decade, many thoughts that humans were quite unique in their rhythmic capacities. Since 2009, however, this theoretical landscape started changing: Research in a parrot (Snowball the cockatoo) and other animals provided evidence that other species can perform predictive and flexible rhythmic synchronization. In this talk, I will take a broad comparative approach, showing the previously underestimated richness of animal rhythms. In particular I will focus on my work in non-human primates and seals. These data suggest that rhythmic abilities in other mammals are more developed than previously surmised. I will discuss how evidence for rhythm in other species can inform the evolution of rhythmic capacities in our own.

 

Benjamin Morillon, Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes, FR
Motor contribution to auditory temporal predictions

 

 

Temporal predictions are fundamental instruments for facilitating sensory selection, allowing humans to exploit regularities in the world. Recent evidence indicates that the motor system instantiates predictive timing mechanisms, helping to synchronize temporal fluctuations of attention with the timing of events in a task-relevant stream, thus facilitating sensory selection. Accordingly, in the auditory domain auditory-motor interactions are observed during perception of speech and music, two temporally structured sensory streams. I will present a behavioral and neurophysiological account for this theory and will detail the parameters governing the emergence of this auditory-motor coupling, through a set of behavioral and magnetoencephalography (MEG) experiments.

I will first review the prominence of delta (~2 Hz) oscillatory rhythms in the motor cortex and show that they constraint the interaction between motor and auditory systems. At this rate –and this rate only– overt rhythmic movements sharpen the temporal selection of auditory stimuli, thereby improving performance. I will next show that the implication of the motor system during auditory perception depends also on the temporal predictability of the sensory stream. Behaviorally, the feeling of groove induced by a melody –i.e. the wanting to move during passive listening– strongly depends on its temporal predictability. MEG results reveal that auditory and motor regions have a distinctive sensitivity to auditory temporal dynamics, with motor areas being more flexible in their ability to track temporal information. Together, these findings are compatible with active sensing theories, emphasizing the prominent role of motor areas in sensory processing, which are notably implicated in the analysis of contextual temporal information