Investigating cortico-subcortical circuits during auditory sensory attenuation: A combined magnetoencephalographic and dynamic causal modeling study

Sensory attenuation refers to the decreased intensity of a sensory percept when a sensation is self-generated compared with when it is externally triggered. However, the underlying brain regions and network interactions that give rise to this phenomenon remain to be determined. To address this issue, we recorded magnetoencephalographic (MEG) data from 35 healthy controls during an auditory task in which pure tones were either elicited through a button press or passively presented. We analyzed the auditory M100 at sensor- and source-level and identified movement-related magnetic fields (MRMFs). Regression analyses were used to further identify brain regions that contributed significantly to sensory attenuation, followed by a dynamic causal modeling (DCM) approach to explore network interactions between generators. Attenuation of the M100 was pronounced in right Heschl's gyrus (HES), superior temporal cortex (ST), thalamus, rolandic operculum (ROL), precuneus and inferior parietal cortex (IPL). Regression analyses showed that right postcentral gyrus (PoCG) and left precentral gyrus (PreCG) predicted M100 sensory attenuation. In addition, DCM results indicated that auditory sensory attenuation involved bi-directional information flow between thalamus, IPL, and auditory cortex. In summary, our data show that sensory attenuation is mediated by bottom-up and top-down information flow in a thalamocortical network, providing support for the role of predictive processing in sensorimotor system.