Detection of Near-Threshold Sounds is Independent of EEG Phase in Common Frequency Bands

Zoefel, Benedikt; Heil, Peter

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00262

Cited by 89 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 93 publications

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“…Upon applying the same time-frequency phase opposition analysis techniques (figure 1a,b) as in our previous visual experiments [30,31,33], we were unable to reveal any systematic relationship between pre-stimulus phase and auditory perception in any frequency band (figure 1c). A similar negative report was independently published by Zoefel & Heil [70]. were created as a superposition of pure tone sweeps, increasing or decreasing in frequency over time.…”

Section: (B) No Ongoing Electroencephalographic Signatures Of Auditormentioning

confidence: 84%

On the cyclic nature of perception in vision versus audition

VanRullen

Zoefel

İlhan

2014

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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134

144

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Does our perceptual awareness consist of a continuous stream, or a discrete sequence of perceptual cycles, possibly associated with the rhythmic structure of brain activity? This has been a long-standing question in neuroscience. We review recent psychophysical and electrophysiological studies indicating that part of our visual awareness proceeds in approximately 7–13 Hz cycles rather than continuously. On the other hand, experimental attempts at applying similar tools to demonstrate the discreteness of auditory awareness have been largely unsuccessful. We argue and demonstrate experimentally that visual and auditory perception are not equally affected by temporal subsampling of their respective input streams: video sequences remain intelligible at sampling rates of two to three frames per second, whereas audio inputs lose their fine temporal structure, and thus all significance, below 20–30 samples per second. This does not mean, however, that our auditory perception must proceed continuously. Instead, we propose that audition could still involve perceptual cycles, but the periodic sampling should happen only after the stage of auditory feature extraction. In addition, although visual perceptual cycles can follow one another at a spontaneous pace largely independent of the visual input, auditory cycles may need to sample the input stream more flexibly, by adapting to the temporal structure of the auditory inputs.

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Section: (B) No Ongoing Electroencephalographic Signatures Of Auditormentioning

confidence: 84%

On the cyclic nature of perception in vision versus audition

VanRullen

Zoefel

İlhan

2014

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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134

144

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“…Data were epoched −3 to 3 s around syllable onset. To ensure that poststimulus effects did not temporally smear back to the prestimulus interval (e.g., 15), we padded all data points after zero with the amplitude value at zero. For every participant, we extracted the average phase for each of the syllable types for the −0.3-to 0.2-s interval.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oscillatory phase shapes syllable perception

Oever

Sack

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

109

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The role of oscillatory phase for perceptual and cognitive processes is being increasingly acknowledged. To date, little is known about the direct role of phase in categorical perception. Here we show in two separate experiments that the identification of ambiguous syllables that can either be perceived as /da/ or /ga/ is biased by the underlying oscillatory phase as measured with EEG and sensory entrainment to rhythmic stimuli. The measured phase difference in which perception is biased toward /da/ or /ga/ exactly matched the different temporal onset delays in natural audiovisual speech between mouth movements and speech sounds, which last 80 ms longer for /ga/ than for /da/. These results indicate the functional relationship between prestimulus phase and syllable identification, and signify that the origin of this phase relationship could lie in exposure and subsequent learning of unique audiovisual temporal onset differences.oscillations | phase | audiovisual | speech | temporal processing I n spoken language, visual mouth movements naturally precede the production of any speech sound, and therefore serve as a temporal prediction and detection cue for identifying spoken language (1) (but also see ref.2). Different syllables are characterized by unique visual-to-auditory temporal asynchronies (3, 4). For example, /ga/ has an 80-ms longer delay than /da/, and this difference aids categorical perception of these syllables (4). We propose that neuronal oscillations might carry the information to dissociate these syllables based on temporal differences. Multiple authors have proposed (5-7)-and it has been demonstrated empirically (7-9)-that at the onset of visual mouth movements, ongoing oscillations in auditory cortex align (see refs. 10-12 for nonspeech phase reset), providing a temporal reference frame for the auditory processing of subsequent speech sounds. Consequently, auditory signals fall on different phases of the aligned oscillation depending on the unique visualto-auditory temporal asynchrony, resulting in a consistent relationship between syllable identity and oscillatory phase.We hypothesized that this consistent "phase-syllable" relationship results in ongoing oscillatory phase biasing syllable perception. More specifically, the phase at which syllable perception is mostly biased should be proportional to the visual-toauditory temporal asynchrony found in natural speech. A naturally occurring /ga/ has an 80-ms longer visual-to-auditory onset difference than a naturally occurring /da/ (4). Consequently, the phase difference between perception bias toward /da/ and /ga/ should match 80 ms, which can only be established with an oscillation with a period greater than 80 ms, that is, any oscillation under 12.5 Hz. The apparent relevant oscillation range is therefore theta, with periods ranging between 111 and 250 ms (4-9 Hz). This oscillation range has already been proposed as a candidate to encode information, and seems specifically important for speech perception (13,14).To test this hypothesis of oscill...

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“…Phase entrainment can also be observed when subjects do not consciously perceive the stimulus, ruling out contamination by evoked potentials (Zoefel and Heil, 2013; Figure 2B). …”

Section: Frequencies Of Stimulus Processing: Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Oscillatory Mechanisms of Stimulus Processing and Selection in the Visual and Auditory Systems: State-of-the-Art, Speculations and Suggestions

Zoefel¹,

VanRullen²

2017

Front. Neurosci.

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All sensory systems need to continuously prioritize and select incoming stimuli in order to avoid overflow or interference, and provide a structure to the brain's input. However, the characteristics of this input differ across sensory systems; therefore, and as a direct consequence, each sensory system might have developed specialized strategies to cope with the continuous stream of incoming information. Neural oscillations are intimately connected with this selection process, as they can be used by the brain to rhythmically amplify or attenuate input and therefore represent an optimal tool for stimulus selection. In this paper, we focus on oscillatory processes for stimulus selection in the visual and auditory systems. We point out both commonalities and differences between the two systems and develop several hypotheses, inspired by recently published findings: (1) The rhythmic component in its input is crucial for the auditory, but not for the visual system. The alignment between oscillatory phase and rhythmic input (phase entrainment) is therefore an integral part of stimulus selection in the auditory system whereas the visual system merely adjusts its phase to upcoming events, without the need for any rhythmic component. (2) When input is unpredictable, the visual system can maintain its oscillatory sampling, whereas the auditory system switches to a different, potentially internally oriented, “mode” of processing that might be characterized by alpha oscillations. (3) Visual alpha can be divided into a faster occipital alpha (10 Hz) and a slower frontal alpha (7 Hz) that critically depends on attention.

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Detection of Near-Threshold Sounds is Independent of EEG Phase in Common Frequency Bands

Cited by 89 publications

References 93 publications

On the cyclic nature of perception in vision versus audition

On the cyclic nature of perception in vision versus audition

Oscillatory phase shapes syllable perception

Oscillatory Mechanisms of Stimulus Processing and Selection in the Visual and Auditory Systems: State-of-the-Art, Speculations and Suggestions

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