Brain with light lines showing predictive perception

Unlock Your Brain's Potential: How Expectations Shape What You See

Lena Voss in Mind & Education August 2025 • 4 min read.

"New research reveals that our brains actively prepare for what we expect, influencing our perception even before we see it."

Our perception of the world isn't just about passively receiving information; it's an active process where our brains constantly make predictions. These predictions, or expectations, heavily influence how we interpret sensory input. Imagine walking into a familiar coffee shop – you expect the aroma of coffee, the chatter of conversations, and the sight of pastries. But how exactly do these expectations shape what you actually experience?

For years, scientists have debated how the brain integrates these top-down expectations with bottom-up sensory information. One compelling theory suggests that the brain proactively prepares for expected stimuli by creating "sensory templates" – a pre-activation of neural pathways tuned to what we anticipate seeing, hearing, or feeling. This would mean that, even before the stimulus arrives, your brain is already humming with activity related to it.

Now, groundbreaking research is providing compelling evidence for this 'pre-activation' theory. By combining advanced brain imaging techniques with sophisticated decoding methods, scientists have peered into the brain's activity just before a stimulus is presented, revealing that expectations indeed create measurable neural representations of what's to come. This could change how we understand not only perception but also attention, learning, and even conditions like hallucinations.

The Science of Seeing: How Expectations Wire Your Brain

Brain with light lines showing predictive perception

To investigate how expectations influence perception, researchers at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to record the brain activity of participants as they performed a visual task. MEG is a neuroimaging technique that measures the tiny magnetic fields produced by electrical currents in the brain, offering excellent temporal resolution – meaning it can capture brain activity changes occurring in milliseconds.

In the experiment, participants were presented with auditory cues that predicted the likely orientation of a visual grating (a pattern of lines). For example, a high-pitched tone might indicate a grating oriented at 45 degrees, while a low-pitched tone predicted a 135-degree orientation. The catch? The cues weren't always accurate; they were only 75% reliable, introducing an element of uncertainty and requiring participants to use their expectations but also remain open to surprises.

Here's how the experiment was set up:

Auditory Cue: A tone signals the probable orientation of the upcoming grating.
Grating 1: The first grating appears briefly.
Grating 2: A second grating, slightly different in orientation or contrast, follows.
Task: Participants had to discriminate whether the second grating differed in orientation or contrast from the first.

The researchers then used a clever technique called multivariate decoding to analyze the MEG data. This involved training a computer algorithm to recognize the neural patterns associated with different grating orientations based on separate "localizer" trials. Once trained, the algorithm could then be used to "decode" the brain activity during the main experiment, revealing what information the brain was representing at different points in time – even before the grating appeared.

Rewriting Reality: The Power of Prediction

This research provides compelling evidence that our expectations actively shape our sensory experiences. The brain isn't just a passive receiver of information; it's an active predictor, constantly preparing for what it thinks is coming next. These prestimulus sensory templates can influence how we perceive the world, potentially biasing our interpretations and even influencing our actions. By understanding how expectations shape perception, we can gain valuable insights into how the brain works and how we can optimize our interactions with the world.

About this Article -

This article was crafted using a human-AI hybrid and collaborative approach. AI assisted our team with initial drafting, research insights, identifying key questions, and image generation. Our human editors guided topic selection, defined the angle, structured the content, ensured factual accuracy and relevance, refined the tone, and conducted thorough editing to deliver helpful, high-quality information.See our About page for more information.

This article is based on research published under:

DOI-LINK: 10.1073/pnas.1705652114, Alternate LINK

Title: Prior Expectations Induce Prestimulus Sensory Templates

Subject: Multidisciplinary

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Authors: Peter Kok, Pim Mostert, Floris P. De Lange

Published: 2017-09-12

Everything You Need To Know

What is a 'sensory template' and how does it relate to perception?

The brain uses 'sensory templates' to prepare for expected stimuli. These are pre-activations of neural pathways tuned to what we anticipate seeing, hearing, or feeling. The brain actively creates these templates before the stimulus arrives, influencing perception. This pre-activation of the brain is crucial because it shows that perception isn't just about receiving information; it's about actively predicting and preparing for what is expected. This process can shape how we interpret incoming sensory data, affecting our overall experience.

What methods did the researchers use to study how expectations affect the brain?

Researchers utilized magnetoencephalography (MEG) to study brain activity. MEG is a neuroimaging technique that detects tiny magnetic fields produced by electrical currents in the brain. It offers high temporal resolution, allowing scientists to capture rapid changes in brain activity. In the experiment, the researchers also used multivariate decoding to analyze the MEG data. This involved training a computer algorithm to recognize neural patterns associated with specific visual stimuli, allowing them to 'decode' what the brain was representing at different times, even before a stimulus appeared. These methodologies are important because they provide detailed insights into how the brain processes and anticipates sensory information, which is essential for understanding the impact of expectations.

How were the expectations created and tested in the experiment?

In the experiment, participants were given auditory cues predicting the orientation of a visual grating. The cues were only 75% reliable, creating uncertainty. Participants then had to discriminate between two gratings to see if the orientation or contrast changed. The auditory cue is a vital element, as it sets up the expectations. Because the cues are not always correct it forces the participants to balance their expectations with an awareness of potential surprises. This design lets scientists test how the brain deals with expected versus unexpected information, which helps to understand how expectations affect perception and the interplay between prediction and reality.

How do our expectations influence what we perceive?

The expectations shape perception by creating 'sensory templates'. These templates are pre-activation patterns in the brain that anticipate incoming sensory information. Before a stimulus is presented, the brain is already preparing to process it based on prior expectations. This active prediction can influence how we interpret sensory input and can even impact our actions. The significance lies in understanding that perception is not a passive process. Expectations play a crucial role in shaping our experiences, influencing how we see, hear, and feel the world around us.

Why is this research on expectations important?

This research is significant because it demonstrates the brain's predictive nature and how expectations shape our sensory experiences. Understanding this helps us to understand how the brain works, how we can refine our interactions with the world, and to gain insights into conditions such as hallucinations. The implications are far-reaching, touching on fields such as attention, learning, and mental health. Recognizing the impact of expectations is crucial for understanding how we make sense of the world and how our minds influence reality.