Sensory attenuation develops as a result of sensorimotor experience

The brain attenuates its responses to self-produced exteroceptions (e.g., we cannot tickle ourselves). Is this phenomenon, called sensory attenuation, enabled innately, or is it acquired through learning? To explore the latter possibility, we created a neural network model consisting of sensory (proprioceptive and exteroceptive), association, and executive areas. A simulated robot controlled by the network learned to acquire motor patterns with self-produced or externally produced exteroceptive feedback. We found that the robot first increased responses in sensory and association areas for both self-produced and externally produced conditions in the early stage of learning, but then, gradually it attenuated responses in sensory areas only for self-produced conditions. The robot spontaneously acquired a capacity to switch (attenuate or amplify) responses in sensory areas depending on the conditions by switching the neural state of the executive area. This suggests that proactive control of sensory-information flow inside the network was self-organized through learning. We also found that innate alterations in the modulation of sensory-information flow induced some characteristics analogous to schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder. This study provides a novel perspective on neural mechanisms underlying perceptual phenomena and psychiatric disorders.