{"id":7462,"date":"2026-02-24T10:48:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T15:48:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/?p=7462"},"modified":"2026-02-24T12:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T17:59:17","slug":"new-study-finds-orbitofrontal-cortex-drives-predictive-filtering-of-sensory-responses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/new-study-finds-orbitofrontal-cortex-drives-predictive-filtering-of-sensory-responses\/","title":{"rendered":"New Study Finds Orbitofrontal Cortex Drives Predictive Filtering of Sensory Responses"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a new and fascinating study, researchers in the UNC Kato Lab find that the orbitofrontal cortex drives predictive filtering of sensory responses. More details can be found in the abstract below, and the full Nature Neuroscience publication can be found here: https:\/\/rdcu.be\/e5sm3<\/p>\n

“Habituation is a crucial sensory filtering mechanism whose dysregulation <\/span>can lead to a continuously intense world in disorders with hypersensitivity. <\/span>Although habituation is often termed the simplest form of learning, its <\/span>circuit mechanisms remain elusive. Conventional peripheral explanations <\/span>fail to fully account for long-term habituation in complex sensory <\/span>environments, leading to theories proposing top-down regulation. <\/span>Here we evaluated two competing top-down mechanistic explanations <\/span>for habituation in mice (growth in predictive filtering and waning of <\/span>novelty-driven amplification) and identified an unexpected role for <\/span>the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in predictive filtering. After daily sound <\/span>exposure, neural habituation in the primary auditory cortex (A1) was <\/span>reversed by inactivating the OFC. Top-down projections from the OFC, <\/span>but not other frontal areas, carried predictive signals that grew with daily <\/span>sound experience and suppressed A1 via somatostatin-expressing inhibitory <\/span>neurons. Thus, prediction signals from the OFC cancel out anticipated <\/span>stimuli by generating their \u2018negative images\u2019 in sensory cortices.”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a new and fascinating study, researchers in the UNC Kato Lab find that the orbitofrontal cortex drives predictive filtering of sensory responses. More details can be found in the abstract below, and the full Nature Neuroscience publication can be found here: https:\/\/rdcu.be\/e5sm3 “Habituation is a crucial sensory filtering mechanism whose dysregulation can lead to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96491,"featured_media":7465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNew Study Finds Orbitofrontal Cortex Drives Predictive Filtering of Sensory Responses | UNC Neuroscience Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/new-study-finds-orbitofrontal-cortex-drives-predictive-filtering-of-sensory-responses\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Study Finds Orbitofrontal Cortex Drives Predictive Filtering of Sensory Responses | UNC Neuroscience Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a new and fascinating study, researchers in the UNC Kato Lab find that the orbitofrontal cortex drives predictive filtering of sensory responses. 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