Adaptive reliance on the most stable sensory predictions enhances perceptual feature extraction of moving stimuli

The prediction of the sensory outcomes of action is thought to be useful for distinguishing self- vs. externally generated sensations, correcting movements when sensory feedback is delayed, and learning predictive models for motor behavior. Here, we show that aspects of another fundamental function—perception—are enhanced when they entail the contribution of predicted sensory outcomes and that this enhancement relies on the adaptive use of the most stable predictions available. We combined a motor-learning paradigm that imposes new sensory predictions with a dynamic visual search task to first show that perceptual feature extraction of a moving stimulus is poorer when it is based on sensory feedback that is misaligned with those predictions. This was possible because our novel experimental design allowed us to override the “natural” sensory predictions present when any action is performed and separately examine the influence of these two sources on perceptual feature extraction. We then show that if the new predictions induced via motor learning are unreliable, rather than just relying on sensory information for perceptual judgments, as is conventionally thought, then subjects adaptively transition to using other stable sensory predictions to maintain greater accuracy in their perceptual judgments. Finally, we show that when sensory predictions are not modified at all, these judgments are sharper when subjects combine their natural predictions with sensory feedback. Collectively, our results highlight the crucial contribution of sensory predictions to perception and also suggest that the brain intelligently integrates the most stable predictions available with sensory information to maintain high fidelity in perceptual decisions.