Auditory awareness negativity is an electrophysiological correlate of awareness in an auditory threshold task

Eklund, Rasmus; Wiens, Stefan

doi:10.1016/j.concog.2019.03.008

Cited by 40 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The present results replicate and extend our previous report of AAN (Eklund and Wiens, 2019). There was extreme evidence that AAN can be obtained whether or not subjects respond manually (Table 2).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…For both ERPs, we preregistered that there would be a negativity between 160 and 260 ms after tone onset (AAN) and a positivity (in the P3 interval) between 350 and 550 ms after tone onset (LP). The AAN and LP intervals match those used in our previous study (Eklund and Wiens, 2019). For analysis of AAN and LP, electrodes were selected on the basis of preliminary results from an unpublished study (Eklund et al, 2019, unpublished).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Importantly, we recently found that in threshold tasks ERP correlates of awareness in hearing resemble those in vision (Eklund and Wiens, 2019). Specifically, we found a negative difference wave at about 200 ms after auditory onset at frontocentral electrodes (auditory awareness negativity, AAN), and a positive difference wave about 300 ms after auditory onset at parietal electrodes (LP).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another goal of our study was to explore the neural generators of AAN. In our previous study (Eklund and Wiens, 2019), no source localization could be attempted because too few electrodes were recorded. In the MEG study of the multitone masking task (Gutschalk et al, 2008), the source of the awareness-related negativity appeared to be bilateral auditory cortices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of a Manual Response Requirement on Early and Late Correlates of Auditory Awareness

2019

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In hearing, two neural correlates of awareness are the auditory awareness negativity (AAN) and the late positivity (LP). These correlates of auditory awareness are typically observed with tasks in which subjects are required to report their awareness with manual responses. Thus, the correlates may be confounded by this manual response requirement. We manipulated the response requirement in a tone detection task (N = 52). Tones were presented at each subject’s individual awareness threshold while high-density electroencephalography (EEG) activity was recorded. In one response condition, subjects pushed a button if they were aware of the tone and withheld responding if they were unaware of the tone. In the other condition, subjects pushed a button if they were unaware of the tone and withheld responding if they were aware of the tone. To capture AAN and LP, difference waves were computed between aware and unaware trials, separately for trials in which responses were required and trials in which responses were not required. Results suggest that AAN and LP are unaffected by the response requirement. These findings imply that in hearing, early and late correlates of awareness are not confounded by a manual response requirement. Furthermore, the results suggest that AAN originates from bilateral auditory cortices, supporting the view that AAN is a neural correlate of localized recurrent processing in early sensory areas.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of a Manual Response Requirement on Early and Late Correlates of Auditory Awareness

2019

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“…While MCS-EX patients showed the typical P3b topography observed in conscious controls when they are aware of global regularity violations or of any other visual or auditory stimulus ( Naccache et al , 2016 ), VS/UWS-EX patients showed a central negativity topography that occurred earlier than the P3b. This pattern is reminiscent of the visual awareness negativity that has been reported primarily in the visual modality ( Koivisto et al , 2008 ), and that was recently extended to the auditory modality ( Eklund and Wiens, 2019 ). The ultimate interpretation of this difference of topography between the two groups of ASR-EX patients is beyond the scope of the present study, but the mere and specific presence of such a global effect when ASR habituation is preserved suggests a tight link between this sign and conscious state.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 65%

Habituation of auditory startle reflex is a new sign of minimally conscious state

Hermann

Salah

Perlbarg

et al. 2020

Brain

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Neurological examination of non-communicating patients relies on a few decisive items that enable the crucial distinction between vegetative state (VS)—also coined unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS)—and minimally conscious state. Over the past 10 years, this distinction has proven its diagnostic value as well as its important prognostic value on consciousness recovery. However, clinicians are currently limited by three factors: (i) the current behavioural repertoire of minimally conscious state items is limited and restricted to a few cognitive domains in the goldstandard revised version of the Coma Recovery Scale; (ii) a proportion of ∼15–20% clinically VS/UWS patients are actually in a richer state than VS/UWS as evidenced by functional brain imaging; and (iii) the neurophysiological and cognitive interpretation of each minimally conscious state item is still unclear and debated. In the current study we demonstrate that habituation of the auditory startle reflex (hASR) tested at bedside constitutes a novel, simple and powerful behavioural sign that can accurately distinguish minimally conscious state from VS/UWS. In addition to enlarging the minimally conscious state items repertoire, and therefore decreasing the low sensitivity of current behavioural measures, we also provide an original and rigorous description of the neurophysiological basis of hASR through a combination of functional (high density EEG and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET imaging) and structural (diffusion tensor imaging MRI) measures. We show that preservation of hASR is associated with the functional and structural integrity of a brain-scale fronto-parietal network, including prefrontal regions related to control of action and inhibition, and meso-parietal areas associated with minimally conscious and conscious states. Lastly, we show that hASR predicts 6-month improvement of consciousness. Taken together, our results show that hASR is a cortically-mediated behaviour, and suggest that it could be a new clinical item to clearly and accurately identify non-communicating patients who are in the minimally conscious state.

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