Modality predictability modulation confirms the sensorial readiness function of the pre-stimulus activity in sensory brain areas

The auditory Positivity (aP) and the visual Negativity (vN) are recently discovered modality-specific event-related potential (ERP) components associated with sensory readiness, which seems promising to study anticipatory perception and attention. However, a crucial aspect of these waves remains to be determined since it is still unclear if these components are indeed related to sensory readiness or represent the result of stimulus predictably. Indeed, earlier studies found these components in tasks where stimuli were repeatedly presented uniquely in the same sensory modality. To disentangle this issue, we used an experimental design consisting of three passive tasks: a unimodal auditory condition, a unimodal visual condition, and an intermodal condition in which the visual and auditory stimuli were unpredictably alternated. Then, we compared the amplitudes of the aP and vN in the three conditions and performed correlation analyses between pre-stimulus and post-stimulus components. Crucially, results showed that in the intermodal condition the components still occur, but their amplitudes are decreased compared to unimodal condition, providing evidence that they are only partially dependent on the task and that expectancy might modulate them. This result is in line with the “modality-shift effect” costs phenomenon which can occur also for passive tasks even before stimulus presentation. In addition, the amplitude of the post-stimulus components correlated with pre-stimulus ERP. Collectively, the present study confirms that the aP and the vN reflect sensory readiness processes that “boost” post-stimulus auditory N1 and visual P1 components.